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THE DIAKKA, 



THEIE EARTHLY VICTIMS; 



BEING AN EXPLANATION OF MUCH THAT IS 



FALSE AND REPULSIVE IN SPIRITUALISM. 



ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS. 

II 



"Be advised: 
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot 
, That it do singe yourself. We may outrun 
By violent swiftness, that which we run at 
Aid lose by over-running.''' 



KEW YORK : 

A. J. DAVIS & CO., 

PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING HOUSE, 

No. 24 EAST FOURTH STREET. 

1873. 






ly Tnnisfa- 



Entered according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 






Poole & Maclattchlan, 

printers and bookbinders, 

205-213 mm Twelfth St. f 

NEW YORK, 






CONTENTS. 



Description of the Diakka Country in the Summerland. 

Appearance of James Victor Wilson, and Conversations with him. 

Story of a Diakka's Visit to Boston and Vicinity. 

His Delight in Mischief and Intrigue at the Expense of others. 

How he influenced the Tongue and Imagination of a Lady Medium. 

An Old Man's Testimony concerning the Actions of Diakka. 

Effects of the Diakka upon the Passive, Credulous, and Susceptible. 

How they perform Materializations at Dark Circles. 

Important Reflections regarding the Use of these Manifestations. . 

A Discourse upon the present State and Mission of Spiritualism. 



LAW OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 



"There are certain dark epochs, or cycles, during 
which the approach of spiritual beings is all but im- 
possible. During these periods mankind retard — dark 
ages set in ; these dark ages are recorded in the past of 
the development of the human race ; they mark the 
absence of spiritual intercourse. But there are, and 
that periodically, seasons of approach — they are like to 
your summer months, as the darker cycles resemble 
your winter solstice. This alternate act, the systole, 
and diastole of the creative act, is an all-governing law, 
and rules in all the phenomena of life ; for the great 
ruling principles repeat themselves in Nature's working. 
Spiritual intercourse alternates like seasons, and the 
approach of spiritual beings is easy or difficult, just as 
the season is favorable or not. Mankind are now fast 
nearing a period of spiritual approach. This approach, 
like the base of rivers — a tide swelling above another 
tide — will outstride the great river-current of the pres- 
ent. The great ocean wave behind presses onward and 
onward, overcoming all, rising, conquering over the 
current of the present. Spiritual truth must conquer ; 
the natures above attract you ; try to unfetter the bonds 
of the material." — Extract from a recent message. 






DESCRIPTION OF THE CELESTIAL COUNTRY OF THE 
DIAKKA m THE SUMMERLAKD- 



During the past twenty years, but divided by differ- 
ent periods of time, the telescopic power of self -regu- 
lated vision called " independent clairvoyance," has 
been frequently directed upon that wonderful and 
invariably mysterious portion of the Summerland 
named by a certain astronomer there " Draco Major" 
meaning in our language " The Great Dragon." Seen 
from Starnos, or contemplated from the right shoulder 
of the beautiful mountain east of the Seven Lakes of 
Cylosimar,* it appears like an immeasurable wilderness 
covering the whole sphere to the south-west, and throw- 
ing a shadow far up into the dome of the rosy blue 
heavens resembling a beautifully decorated trapezium, 
with a countless chain of bars and swings, trembling in 
the atmosphere, supported and upheld by nothing, but 
so amazingly attractive and seductive, like the enchant- 
ing arch of a rainbow to a child's mind, that great self- 
government is necessary to save one from hastening 

* For some knowledge concerning- Starnos and the Lakes of 
Cylosimar, see the author's volume, the Penetralia^ new edition, 
12mo.,pp. 161-274. 



(3 THE DIAKKA 

with precipitation to enter a country which has for 
millions of ages excited the admiration, the curiosity, 
the cupidity, and the jealousy of the imperfect inhab- 
itants of all worlds. 

The "observer (and here the author refers to his own 
clairvoyant observations and feelings) is first amazed 
with the apparent boundless magnitude of this celestial 
wilderness, stretching in a semi-circle from the far 
north-west to the equally far south-west, and this, too, 
in a heavenly land ineffably glorious and perfect, — that 
is, when compared with anything seen or dreamed of 
among: the most imaginative minds on earth. * 

This wonderful country of the Diakka excites your 
unenlightened fancy, first, by its mighty wealth of 
magnitude, and, second, by the wonderful character of 
its aerial crown, over the shadow of the enchained 
trapezium, mottled with delicate brilliant points, so 
dazzlingly bright and exquisitely prismatic as to make 
the immediate surroundings black, giving the beholder 
an impression that the hills and dales and forests be- 
neath must be insufferably splendid with diamonds and 
golden riches too perfect for earthly eyes to gaze upon. 
Intense, central globular lights, softened rapidly into 
frames of perfect globes of blackness, but with very 
jagged and broken outline, appearing and disappearing 
under the eye, sometimes in bars and lines of incalcula- 
ble length, at other times at irregular intervals and with 
the free variety of order, almost complete chaos, peculiar 
to the appearance of stars and the constellations visible 
at night from earth in different parts of the sky. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 7 

All the external appearances of the Wilderness of the 
N Diakka impress the observer with its mysterious and in- 
s tensely occult character. 

For years I permitted no appropriate chance of in- 
vestigation to escape me ; and from time to time my 
perseverance and industry (clairvoyantly speaking) has 
been suitably rewarded. Not satisfied with observa- 
tion from the more agreeable places in the Summer- 
land, and as a rule carefully closing my mind to the 
hints and suggestions of associates, I have penetrated 
into the recesses of that mysterious realm, and have ex- 
plored many of its sad human experiences. 

In this pamphlet I am admonished to condense whole 
volumes into pages, and to crowd histories of persons 
into paragraphs. 
\ The country of the Diakka, then, in a sentence, is (to 
vgive you my own definition) a Garden of Eden, to call 
^ it by no harsher name, where the morally deficient and 
*the affectionally unclean enter upon a strange proha- 
^ tionary life. 

Reverting for a moment to its magnitude (supposing 

it were a complete belt of country, instead of only a 

third in the form of a semicircle) it would require * 

N not less than one million eight hundred and three thou- 

, sand and twenty-six diameters of the earth to measure 

the longitudinal extent of the celestial wilderness. 

The name it bears signifies rather the interior character 
of its inhabitants than the shape or external appearance 

* Here I give the figures of my friend James Victor Wilson, a pro- 
found and accurate mathematician. 



8. THE DIAKKA 

of the country. (I apply the term " country v in con- 
formity with the ordinary use of language.) 

Having investigated for myself I am no longer sur- 
prised at the name, "Draco Major" which a celebrated 
astronomer gave to my friend "Wilson, when he had re- 
v turned from his extended travels among the Diakka. 
This startling epithet tells the whole story at once — 

" Sparing no idol, great nor small ; 
Passing one sentence on them all." 

Here, for a brief moment, it is deemed important to 
digress, and introduce the circumstances of the long- 
expected visit from my celestial friend, whose name I 
have already written. Soon after entering upon this 
new enterprise * in behalf of Human Progress in 
Spiritual Ideas, about six o'clock in the evening of the 
sixth of March, 1873, while walking alone np and down 
the floor, thinking about how to arrange the shelving 
and furniture for the new Bookstore, the ringing of the 
outside bell induced me to unfasten the front door. 
There stood an occupant of an upper story, who, having 
forgotten his pass key, was unable to enter ; he thanked 
me for opening the door, and immediately went up- 
stairs to his apartment. But something induced me to ex- 
amine the bell-knobs arranged in the door-frame for the 
tenants of the several floors. While thus engaged, my 
, back to the street and aside from the vestibule, I felt a 
warm wind (quite unlike the cold air of March) pene- 

* Meaning the opening of a u Progressive Publishing House," at 
No. 24 East Fourth Street, in the city of New York. 



AND THEIE VICTIMS. 9 

trate my garments, fanning the surface of my body, 
which naturally induced me to look around suddenly. 
But I saw nothing that could have caused the surprising 
and agreeable sensation. Then I re-entered the store. On 
turning to close the door, which I had unwittingly left 
open behind me, O, glad was my soul ! for there 
smilingly before me stood my faithful young friend, 

N formerly an occasional associate during his residence 

N upon earth — James Victor Wilson. 

What happened during this visitation need not be re- 
corded in this place. 

Just one month after, on the sixth of April, Sunday 
evening about nine o'clock, opposite 1120 Broadway, as 
I was returning from a protracted walk, a telegram^ 
from Victor said — " Meet 7ne on the evening of the 
18th in your own place?'' * 

All the working hours of these days were devoted to 
th£ organization of business in our new Publishing 
House ; so much so, in fact, that, amid the multiplicity 
of "things" and consequent "cares," my memory 
seemed to have lost the date fixed in the telegram for 
the next visitation. Then, again, such a visit seemed 
impracticable, because our business apartments and liv- 
ing rooms were limited, leaving to me no actual place 
of isolation wherein I might receive and hold a 
lengthened conversation with such a guest. But the 
difficulty was practically solved, and very naturally, 
too, without any thought on my part, in this way : My 

* A telegram from a person in the Summerland is a pulsation (in 
v my case) on the left temple imparting words inwardly to the mind. 
1* 



10 THE DIAKKA 

beloved companion, to whom I had said nothing con- 
cerning Victor's intended third visit, one morning said 
she " felt like going out to Orange" (our place of resi- 
dence for thirteen years), and added that, if she did not 
return by the six o'clock p.m. train, I need not look for 
her until the following day. She did not return, and 
v thus I was alone. About eleven o'clock that same night, a 
loud rapping was heard on the door at the rear end of 
^the hall. On my opening it Victor entered; and to- 
gether we proceeded into the room. He stood by my 
side as I sat by the table, with pencil and paper pre- 
pared, and thus we eir ^yed a protracted conversation.* 
The following is but an outline report, not including 
anything which passed daring his first visit, save one or 
two important references to things yet to come. 

" The Diakka ! " said he ; " what would you know of 
them?" 

I looked up at his bright dimpled face, and replied 
— " If possible, I would have yon remove the veil of 
^ mystery from that people." 

" There is no mystery to divulge. A Diakka means 
s a person with an occult temperament; often polished 
N and dignified; with propensities bubbling from a 
^fountain-head of overcharged self -consciousness." 

" Perhaps, Victor," I said, " your language does not 
inform me correctly. Do I understand you ? " 

"A Diakka is one," he continued, " who takes insane 
delight in playing parts, in juggling tricks, in person- 

* This conversation was mostly mental ; but frequently each spoke 
audibly, like one " talking to himself." 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 11 

ating opposite characters ; to whom prayers and pro- 
fane utterances are of equi- value ; surcharged with a 
passion for lyrical narrations ; one whose every attitude 
is instinct with the schemes of specious reasoning, 
sophistry, pride, pleasure, wit, subtle convivialities ; a 
boundless disbeliever, one who thinks that all private 
life will end in the all-consuming self-love of God." 

" Why, Victor ! " I exclaimed, " do I understand you 
to say that a Diakka — now an inhabitant of the spirit- 
world (as men term it) — is one who believes in ultimate 
annihilation ? " 

"Intellectually," he replied, >^.an inhabitant of the 
N belt called Draco Major may be a Bacon, a Byron, a 
s Shakspeare; but, being morally deficient, is without 
the active feelings of justice, philanthropy, or tender 
affection. He knows (by feeling) nothing of what men 
call the sentiment of gratitude ; the ends of hate and 
love are the same to him ; his motto is often fearful 
and terrible to others — SELF is the whole of private 
living, and exalted annihilation the end of all private 
life. Only yesterday, one said to a lady medium, sign- 
ing himself Swedenborg, this: ' Whatsoever is, has 
been, will be, or may be, that I am ; and private life is 
but the aggregative phantasms of thinking throblets 
\ rushing in their rising onward to the central heart of 
eternal death ! ■ " 

At this point in our conversation my recollection 

brought among my thoughts a droll narrative of a 

N " Yisit to the City of Notsob," which, months before, I 

xhad written partly to gratify a good-humored, satirical 



12 THE DIAKKA 

spirit-guest, who wanted to be known only as " David 
Exodus," affirming as his reason therefore that he would 
otherwise be recognized by many of the citizens, which 
lie particularly wished to prevent. Victor immediately 
i smiled and said : " He w T as a Diakka ! " 

" That explains much," I replied. For whenever 
he entered my room in Orange, although singing and 
looking radiant in a rosy robe, with a delicate feathery 
ornament upon his 'head, yet more than once I was 
almost overcome with a faint exhalation, as from a mass 
of noisome vegetation mingled with an odor slightly 
like the vapor arising from ammonia. 

"Strange birds of inversions ! " said Victor. "He 
was until recently a Diakka." 

" What shall I do with the narrative ? " I asked. Vic- 
tor replied, in substance, that its publication would serve 
a good purpose — to teach people how they seem to an 
^invisible visitor and observer — and, meantime, rebuke 
the conceits of materialists who decide, in the face of 
facts, against the possibilities of an existence after death. 

" But, Victor," said I, " there is much of other matters 
in his narrative." 

11 He is no longer a Diakka," replied my gentle vis- 
itor ; " and yet, in the f rolicksome sensuousness of his 
strips and expressions, the people will discern some- 
Mvhat of the mental estate from which he is now almost 
wholly redeemed." 

This last word caused me to ask : " Then it is possi- 
ble to escape from the country of the Diakka ? " 

" Providence, as men call the beneficent and omni- 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 13 

scient government of the spiritual universe, dooms no 

v soul to an inversionary existence." 

As Victor spoke, I gazed upon his beautiful youthful 
face. Never before beamed such ineffable joy through 

^the countenance of a celestial visitor. His eyes shone 
with an inward gratitude which filled him with inex- 
pressible delight. 

" A Diakka," he added, " is an unbalanced, not an 
evil person — he wanders in his qwn congenial forest, 
never resting, never satisfied with life, often amusing 
himself with jugglery and tricky witticisms, invariably 

^victimizing others; secretly tormenting mediums, caus- 
ing them to exaggerate in speech, and to falsify by acts ; 

^unlocking and unbolting the street doors of your bosom 

^and memory; pointing your feet into wrong paths, and 
far more ; nevertheless, the good physicians of love and 
the ministers of truth labor among the Diakka (the nu- 

v merous angel women as missionaries far exceed the 
men); so that in time each and all is reached and deliv- 
ered from the dense wilderness of discord into which 

^circumstances and a voluntary yielding to wrong incli- 
nations primarily consigned them." 

" Friend Wilson," said I, " do you feel at liberty to 
answer me this question, namely : ' Have you knowl- 
edge of any class in the Summerland, or of persons 
once men and women in mortal bodies, located any- 

v where, who are essentially more evil or more inverted 

Mn character than the Diakka? ' " 

" Swedenborg," he replied, " was a philosopher, and 
wrote as a philosopher should write, an hundred years 




14 THE DIAKKA 

before his arrival here. His spiritual illumination did 

"- not extinguish the sub-lights kindled by his previous 
reasonings. Guided by his natural lights," Victor con- 
tinued, "the noble Seer wrote with profound truth that 
' hell ' and ' heaven ' signify mental states — thus : A 
man governed by selfishness, who takes delight, and 
that continually, in sensual thoughts, and in the inces- 
sant and supreme gratification of evil affections, is in 

-hell, in which he is, to a certain degree, happy ; and 
this describes, in general terms, the condition of the 
Dialvka ; from which condition, by help of the Divine 
Mercies as communicated b} T and through the missiona- 
ries of unselfishness and heavenly loves, the inhabitants 
of the mental wilderness come forth, one by one, as the 
will and affections of each choose the good and reject 
the evil ; and thus there is under the Divine govern- 
ment a constant and perpetual process of universal sal- 
vation from a place and situation which you would feel 
to be a boundless and insupportable hell ; and while 

r- the various inferior earths in the universe are constantly 
and every moment supplying the innumerable realm of 

y.the Diakka (this term meaning mental antagonisms, or 
minds with cross purposes), the angels of redemptive 
love are constantly and beautifully at work in that 
realm, changing the disposition and destiny of persons 
there consociated by force of attraction, and every mo- 
ment bringing some soul out of darkness into the heav- 
enly light." 

The foregoing is as near as possible in Victor's own 
words. Very many other things were spoken of during 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 15 

this interview, but tliey do not belong in this pamphlet. 
Before introducing the Diakka's story, however, I but 
obey my impression, endorsed by the best conclusion of 
my reason, when I affirm, what by observation I have 
been long familiar with, that a very large proportion of 
discordant and repulsive and false experiences in Spir- 
itualism is to be explained by admitting into your hy- 
pothesis &faet, namely : that the Diakka are continually 
"/•victimizing sensitive persons, making sport of them, and 
having a jolly laughing " time " at the expense of 
* really honest and sincere people, including mediums, 
'Mvhom they especially take delight in psychologizing 
V- and dispossessing of the use of will. There is no kind 
yof alleged obsession, no species of assumed witchcraft, 
^no phase of religious insanity where such psychology 
is not possible. 

The remedy consists in the knowledge. .Remove the 
% mystery of spiritual intercourse, and yog L ^ggioye,".the 
da nger., No person of ordinary judgment, with will 
enough to draw a pail of water, or to walk a mile up 
X hill, need complain that he cannot overcome the influ- 
ence of a Diakka. They at most can do nothing more 
\ than confuse your thoughts, break up the lines of your 
memory, mingle their inclinations with your own, and 
psychologize your nervous and muscular systems. If 
you yield, in your moments of curiosity or when mor- 
X ally weak, you cannot escape legitimate punishment. 
If you walk one mile with your enemy, he will try to 
force you to go twain ; gratify his trifling impertinence 
for thirty minutes, and he may try to exhibit you as a 



16 THE DIAKKA 

7< fool to your neighbors during the ensuing thirty days. 
\ Beware of the " first false step ! " 

It seems that in the Summerland the police regula- 
tions are based upon the principle of securing the en- 
joyment of the utmost personal freedom, including 
privileges and opportunities not conflicting with the 
exercise of the utmost personal freedom on the part of 
every other ; so that, even the intellectually gifted and 
witty and tricky Diakka, with their known deficiencies 
in the higher moral principles of character, are not re- 
strained in their visits to earth, because personal educa- 
tion through experience, is a part of the scheme of de- 
veloping personal responsibility. 

All the splendid livery of the terrestrial landscape, 
with its seolian music and sweet sympathies, witli its 
sylvan sensuousness and inscrutable ways, are not un- 
known in the high country of the Diakka. When you 
go into their wonderful wilderness you find yourself in 
a garden of beauty. The Divine Love and wisdom are 
there, shining in splendor from the sad-leaved trees, 
and tremblingly emanating from the feathery and 
downy grasses that carpet the beautiful land. The 
trees resemble in their foliage our pine and fir, which 
have the effect to cast a wonderful golden shade 
throughout the entire realm ; and yet the light of the 
upper sky perpetually shines through everything, and 
far down into the very foundations of the land beneath 
the people ; and thus, although .there is an amazing 
solemnity and a tearful sadness and melancholy mur- 
mur over all, magnetically subduing the egotistic extra v- 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 17 

agances and dire witticisms of the inhabitants, yet travel- 
s lers from other countries * enter the society of the 
enlightened Diakka, and enjoy their life and scenery as 
you would a picnic, in the free, artless spontaneousness 
of innocence and childhood. 

BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS. 

Of the narrator, whose drolleries fill the following 
pages, the author learned of Victor, this : 

He was born in Old Cambridge, Mass. Entered 
Harvard, and became a Divinity student with the solemn 
intention of becoming a Unitarian minister. Theodore 
Parker's theological ideas had, however, attracted his 
profoundest attention ; and, after considerable reading 
and reflection, his mind passed through an entire revo- 
lution on the subject of religion. His new convictions 
made him excessively unpopular with, the professors; 
and among the students with whom he frequently dis- 
cussed theological points, he was treated disdainfully. 
In a few months he left the Divinity School and entered 
upon a mercantile pursuit in Boston. He was success- 
ful until the beginning of the great Rebellion. Stricken 
with a serious business disaster, and prostrated soon 
after by a severe inflammation, his will and ambition gave 
way, and, through death, he became a citizen of the 
Summerland. 

From Victor, the author further ascertained that, 

* Of this I have been assured by Victor and others, at different 
times. 



18 THE DIAKKA 

when in youthful years, this ex-divinity student and 
himself were intimate and devoted friends. They cor- 
responded upon religious and other subjects while yet 
in their teens. Upon the sacred altar of friendship 
they mutually pledged to each other eternal fidelity.. 

^ They, even pledged that in case of painful misfortune 
or accident, they would aid and stand faithfully by each 
other. But time, with its changes, separated these 
mutual young friends. Victor confessed that for sev- 
eral years after his own departure from earth, he did 
not even make the attempt to seek out the friend of his 
youth ; and thus remained in ignorance of his situation 
and condition, until, while on the Isle of Akropanamede, 
one came to him and requested a moment's interview. 
A flash of intuition revealed to Victor the presence of 
the companion of his boyhood years ! They embraced. 
Immediately they began a delightful conversation, during 
which Victor, for the first time, ascertained to his aston- 
ishment that his friend had been, from the day of his 

^•death until that moment, sojourning among the Diakka. 
The explanation was that, in consequence of his peculiar 
mental state and disposition, the people of the "Wilder- 

^ ness strongly attracted him. His visit to Boston, to the 
Free Religious Conference, to the Woman's Conven- 
tions, and to other places, was his first approach since 
his death, to familiar scenes and persons. 

Just here I ask you to observe how this invisible vis- | 
itor seems to make himself one of the visible company. 
Another point : His indifference to all religious senti- 

\ mentality, his scornf ulness (expressed in terms of mirth- 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 19 

ful innuendoes) of everything like faith and hope — his 
^subtle scepticism of the Divine existence ; notwithstand- 
ing all which we are given to understand that he has 
^undergone a moral purgation, and is henceforth free 
^from the world of the Diakka. 

THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED. 

In closing these prefatory remarks, the author will 
say, founded upon his most careful investigations, that 

y. the evil forces of human selfishness are not confined in 
their effects to men's individual lives. Under the con- 
trol, or rather by permission, of superior minds the 
Diakka play important parts in great assaults upon bad 
governments, upon pernicious organized customs, upon 
evil social conditions, and frequently upon religious 
errors and superstitions. But for these spiritual free- 

*A booters little progress would be made. The evil commu- 
nications of the meddlesome minds are, in time, com- 
pletely overruled for good. Because Good and not 

x Evil, is positive. \ Th e selfishness of the unredeemed 

>- carpets the floors of the coming temple of Humanitvj 
According to the Scriptures there are " many man- 
sions ' v in the celestial Heaven, signifying the manifold 
families and associations into which the Summerland 
populations are naturally divided and subdivided ; not 
antagonistically as popular orthodox minds are taught 
to imagine ; but these communities differ only as " one 
star differeth from another " as to size, position, func- 
tion, and glory. And here, regarding the use of in- 



20 THE DIAKKA AND THEIR VICTIMS. 

tercourse, the words of a high-minded Spirit (through 
the tongue of the entranced Mr. Home) seem most ap- 
propriate : 

" At present we have so little power, can do &o very 
little; our very language cannot convey to you what 
we fain would wish to say ; your language is too im- 
perfect, you cannot understand us. The germs of all 
are in all — only undeveloped. Why do you quarrel 
with your weaker brethren ? Withdraw not the hand 
you have stretched out in aid ; let it rest, and blessings 
will come ; withdraw it harshly, and the briars and 
thorns of passion w r ill lacerate. We know not of time 
in the sense you speak of it ; to us yesterday, and to- 
day, and the morrow are all one; bear in mind that 
had spiritual life hours, days, years, or even ages, our 
souls would weary, tire; but we never weary, for in 
our spiritual life the principle of the eternal breathes 
everlasting existence. We are not perfect ; we, too, 
have work to do, to elevate ourselves ; we also work to 
elevate others, to draw you upwards and onwards, so to 
speak, by magnetic attraction. It is one of our great 
duties to be constantly watching over you — to guide you 
in your aspirations upwards to God. Our love, our 
sympathy, our fellow-feelings are with you ; we never, 
never weary; we do not judge you ; God alone judges 
"A you. We were once as you ; therefore who are fitter 
V. to be your associates than we who have passed through 
^ the ordeal of development you have to pass through? 
* You ask why we always speak of love ; it is because 
> love brings us to you." 



--/. 






A DIAKKA'S STORY OF HIS VISIT TO THE CITY OF 

NOTSOB. 



The city of the sagacious and wealthy Notsobians had 
been for a long time attracting the narrator like a 
mountain of loadstone. He was, for years after leaving 
the earth, a constant prey to the invasions and stormy 
suggest! veness of this marvellous terrestrial attraction. 
But he steadily and courageously withstood the distract- 
ing temptation, until every objection and every obstacle 
to the journey appeared to have vanished. Whereupon, 
after employing a period in singing hymns and in sup- 
plicating for protection from the dangers and enemies 
that might beset the way, he provided himself with 
only the common necessaries, then girded on his armor 
for a trip earthward, and with great cunning concealed 
every distinguishing mark or hint of his rank, associa- 
tion, and quality. 

Thus he set out for the great terrestrial city. 

Fortunately, at an early hour in the morning, when 
he was fully on the descending way, he suddenly ob- 
served a connected company of travellers also bound on 
a journey to earth. 

Addressing himself to the foremost man, who was 
guiding the others — 



22 THE DIAKKA 

" Sir," lie said, " in exchange for the promised hospi- 
talities of my country, will you grant me a position in 
one of your lines as far as the great city of Notsob ? " 
The gentleman gracefully bowed, and replied, " Be- 
lieve me, sir, in consequence of the duration and im- 
portance of the journey, which we have but this moment 
undertaken, much danger and inconvenience will be 
spared you by securing for yourself a place in our beau- 
tiful march." A remarkable smile of winsome kind- 
ness shone upon his face, and the narrator permitted 
himself to be unreservedly allured by the stranger's 
personal charms. Upon his garments were visible 
minute figures, pictures, and other strange devices, pecu- 
liar to his position and society. He assigned to him an 
easy place in the magnificent chariot drawn by a mighty 
magnet consisting of high purposes. 

" O Genesis ! " exclaimed the narrator, as he buckled 
on his armor, grasped his share of the common necessa- 
ries, and stepped from the line about five leagues from 
the city. Approaching the depot wherein travellers 
alight from the cars, he observed many warlike citizens 
drawn up in battle array. Each was armed with a 
frightful-looking long whip ; each also had a certain 
number engraved upon plates of silver, which were in- 
geniously fixed upon their hatbands ; and with a per- 
suasive countenance, each shouted at the passing stran- 
ger, " Have a coach, sir ? " There was, how r ever, on the 
part of these whip-armed soldiers no breach of the rules 
of honor and dignity, and many of them seemed desir- 
ous to pursue their calling merely as a punishment for 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 23 

some wickedness o£ which .they had been adjudged 
guilty. Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that these 
Ishmaelites were condemned to this degree of daily servi- 
tude because that they were guilty of " the crime of 
poverty ! " Moreover, the narrator for himself soon dis- 
covered that there were many pious and faithful in the 
great city who had been condemned in a similar man- 
ner by the rich, the idle, and the powerful. 

Now the narrator vehemently prayed to be endowed 
with the judicial wisdom of Ahithophel, the great coun- 
sellor and minister of war in the house of Absalom ; 
inasmuch as he had no sooner descended into the street, 
than a peculiar infatuation possessed his heart, and it 
blinded his eyes so that he was sorely puzzled ; the nat- 
ure of which was, that his eyes seemed to behold a 
great number of streets leading away here and there, in 
directions altogether contradictory and impenetrable ; 
all of which had the effect to perplex and overpower his 
mind with the puzzling infatuation to immediately pro- 
ceed down each street at one and the same time, which 
seemed the only sure and short way to his destination. 

Perplexed by the subtleties thus practised by the 
Athenians, he did not know his right hand from his 
left, nor whether to follow his left foot or his right ; 
for, strange to tell, each of his feet was seized with the 
wicked infatuation to go off in opposite streets at the 
same moment; so that the judicial abilities of an 
Ahithophel were more to be desired than all the wealth 
and honor of the Scribes and Pharisees. 

At this moment, a person of military bearing, in blue 



24: THE DIAKKA 

coat and brass buttons, approached with a dignified and 
magnificent step ; whom the narrator, with great pres- 
ence of mind, at once concluded was one of the pro- 
prietors of the great and powerful city of Notsob ; 
under which conviction he addressed him : " Sir, a 
serious misfortune has this moment befallen me. I 
implore you, I entreat you, sir, to direct my steps to 
some hospitable house." 

The captain of the guard, thinking that he heard the 
voice of a man, replied with exceeding bigness of voice 
and ponderous gravity of manner, " With pleasure, sir." 
(Looking at a man standing on the sidewalk near him.) 
"Proceed up that street" (pointing to the left) "three 
blocks ; then take your right hand some twenty-eight 
yards, which carries you into 42° N. lat. x 70° W. long. ; 
the next street's name will remind you of the father of 
his country ; then, by inquiring amongst the citizens, 
you may learn anything that anybody knows in any 
part of the world." 

This delightful information filled the narrator with 
delicious and springlike feelings. He for a moment 
wished for pieces of gold with which to reward the 
magnificent captain ; happily, however, the officer had 
" moved on," leaving his mistake wholly undiscovered ; 
and thus the narrator was left quite at liberty to pursue 
his explorations amid alternate chilling winter blasts and 
oppressive summer heats, but without in the least feeling 
them ; meanwhile enjoying the indescribable eccentric- 
ity of the thoughts and motives behind the quiet faces 
of the citizens. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 25 

Time rapidly passed, as it always does when one is 
busy ; minutes melted and vanished into hours, until 
two whole days were forever gone, which is nothing to 
an eternal mind. The narrator entered an inn kept by 
a publican for the entertainment of travellers. " This 
place," thought the narrator, "would have delighted 
Bagoses himself. Exterior to its tinted walls, and be- 
yond, its green blinds, the room of the wide sphere is 
immense; a great world embellished with twinkling 
stars, arranged with wondrous wisdom in a blending 
canopy of blue and gold." 

It happened one morning, as the narrator was inves- 
tigating humanity beneath the great trees, in front of 
the temple wherein the State governors and command- 
ers often assemble, he was approached by a Ptolemy 
of the West, who, with the epitome of good manners, 
said : " About an hour hence there will be a meeting 
of the Sages of Notsob. I have a ticket of admission 
sanctioned by one of the chief sages ; and if it be your 
pleasure, sir, I will conduct you into the presence of the 
wise ones." 

This mental offer was with gratitude accepted, and 
together we entered the hospitable residence of an 
illustrious and wealthy citizen. We were soon estab- 
lished as guests among the magi of the great city. It 
was with difficulty that the narrator believed himself to 
be invisible to the eyes of those about him. Besjdes 
the remarkable sages themselves, there were present 
^many guests of rank and renown, a goodly number of 
Ptolemaic women, several distinguished Ahithophels, 
. 2 



26 THE DIAKKA 

four members of the Sanhedrim who were just recov- 
ering from the disease of idolatry, and three great 
Hubopolitans who had outlived the captivity of The- 
ology into which they were born. Each had appar- 
ently committed some serious wrong, too deep to be 
mitigated by the Divine compassion, and, as a just pun- 
ishment, each pair of eyes was clothed with and hidden 
by glasses curiously arranged in frames of steel, silver, 
and gold. The women appeared like the sybils and 
prophetesses of the days of Jacob, the very man who 
buried the gods of Laban which Rachel had stolen, and 
the very man who offered sacrifices in Bethel, in accord 
with the visions and dreams he had had when he went 
first into Mesopotamia. 

STORY OF THE FIRST SAGE. 

The sage who spoke first was but thirty minutes 
from the city of the vast temples of learning, whose 
inhabitants display an amazing insensibility to the emi- 
nent men who expedite culture and overthrow impedi- 
ments to individual greatness. This, the first sage, 
said : " Grant me one favor, that you will hear my 
story, and then judge whether I be in the right or in the 
wrong. 5 ' 

A consenting silence reigned throughout the comfort- 
able house of ancient times and modern adjuncts. In 
this silence he began a strange recital of transforma- 
tions, a story of marvellous events continued through 
a rosary of successive ages, by which a protoplastic 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 27 

I 

paste was fashioned into myriads of living creatures. 
" These creations were the Moseses, the Abrahams, 
the Isaacs, the Jacobs, the Joshuas, and the Eleazars 
of the innumerable generations that came after them 
out of the super-vitalized paste. The chief centres 
from which the successive generations came, corre- 
sponded to the ten cities which Moses caused to be 
build ed for the Levites. In this order he found au- 
thority in a modern Zelophehad, an eminent man, in 
the land of Victoria, called Darwin, so that the centres 
of Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan were no longer attractive 
unto him. Whereupon he (the sage) made haste for 
the divine habitations of full-grown men and women. 
Among these he found evidences that once upon an 
immense mass of time the people lived in caves, and 
involuntarily walked upon all fours, not knowing the 
difference between a new-fledged liberal republican 
and an old-line democrat; a time when unmarried 
women were childless and single men were wifeless ; 
a time long before the flood was thought of as a politi- 
cal expedient for equalizing the rights and privileges 
of both sexes as a reward for their horrid wickedness ; 
a time when a father often died from three to five years 
before the birth of his last child ; in short, a time when 
marrying was confined to the heads of tribes and fami- 
lies, who resolved upon preserving the blood pure and 
undefiled, and free from the Israelitish rascalities which 
vaccination perpetuated, in the form of plagues and 
great pimples on the faces of the most beautiful Egyp- 
tians. Sixty-nine thousand beeves, seventy-five thousand 



28 THE DIAKKA 

i 

sheep, and four hundred thousand asses, with immense 
quantities of hay, oats, corn, and gold and silver, patent 
mowing inventions, four hundred best Beckwith ten- 
dollar sewing-machines, two ham-strung Colibri pianos, 
and twenty thousand teeth extracted by Colton from 
the mouth of the whale that swallowed Prof. Jonah. 
By the flood which overwhelmed the inhabitants and 
killed all the troglodytes, whereby everybody and 
everything was destroyed, excepting a few of the better 
breed of asses ; after which came generations upon gen- 
erations of idolaters, Digger-Indians, Dutchmen flying 
with long pipes in their mouths, wealthy Jews with 
jewels in every pocket, scissor-grinders, and priests who 
employed their leisure hours in grinding the faces of 
the poor. This will account for the exceedingly thin 
and sharp expression which envious poor people auda- 
ciously turn toward the rich and comfortably rotund." 

For an hour and more the first sage thus discoursed. 
Tears filled the eyes of many Hubopolitans when he 
had finished. But there immediately arose another and 
ifmch older magi, with huge glasses shielding his bril- 
liant eyes ; he had a long white beard, and snowy curls 
falling in high-art about his broad shoulders. He said : 
" Although the story you have just heard is strange and 
transcendental, yet it is as nothing compared with what 
I have to relate. If it be the pleasure of this sagacious 
company, I will immediately begin my story, w T hich, 
with your indulgence and permission, I will call, 
" Steps of Belief ; or, Rational Christianity Maintained 
against Atheism, Free Religion, and Romanism." On 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 29 

hearing these strange words, there was a simultaneous 
movement among all the sages and guests. Several 
opened their mouths extremely wide, as if to yawn; 
all with one accord crossed their legs in an opposite 
direction ; then they sat bowed down with thought 
while they listened to the story of the second sage. 

Thus concluded the first interview. In private conference the nar- 
^rator assured me that the Diakka country in the Summerland was 
^populated with persons in every grade of society, and from every 
^part of the world. He acknowledged, in answer to a question 

of mine, that while many Diakka were proud and high-minded, their 
% great intelligence was of an exceptional character, being associated 

with imposture, deception, and delusion. Next morning he came 

again and related 



THE STORY OF THE SECOND SAGE. 

" I was born," began the wise man, " of rich but 
honest parents. My grandfather was one of the most 
famous ministers in the land of Notsob. Observing that I 
possessed a tenacious excitability and great quickness 
of perception, my family, with wonderful prodigality 
of means,- procured for me many famous savans who 
taught me science, the fine arts, and all knowledge of 
the basis, precepts, and comprehensive principles of our 
religion. .Religion, however, absorbed all my thoughts, 
and in the presence of the most learned and gifted, 
I resolved to leave the credo of my forefathers and 
make a journey into the country of Monotheopolitans, 
not far from No-Man ? s-land on the shore of 'the great 
Sea of Atheism, which by many strangers is imagined 



30 THE DIAKKA 

to be a far greater waste of water than the Asphaltum 
Lake covering Sodom." 

While the Second Sage was thus speaking, a noise of 
many voices was heard at the door. The beautiful lady 
of the house hastened to see what was happening; 
when the name of the Grand President of the free religi- 
ous magi was announced ; at which many sages and the 
chief prophetesses arose from the cushioned sofas, 
and with graceful genuflections (talking and whispering 
were both prohibited), and thus all in silence welcomed 
the formidable Master. There was no shaking of the 
house as by an earthquake, neither were there peals on 
peals of thunder, nor did the fierce lightning flash 
athwart the sky. No sooner were all seated with one 
knee resting upon its fellow, and as quickly as the 
metal and glass and like harnesses over each pair of 
eyes were once more properly adjusted, than the distin- 
guished sage continued in these words : 

"Arrived among the monotheopolitans, I set about 
using the qualities of earnestness and industry which I 
had inherited, and soon became noted and courted 
by the respectable and influential. My intellect was 
naturally eclectic and aggressive, and never suffered the 
least inconvenience by maintaining that two contradic- 
tory propositions are both true and both false. My 
mentally acrobatic fame went before me, and which- 
ever way I travelled, whether forward or backward, or 
from side to side, I was sure to be accosted with saluta- 
tions of joy, and reproached with wavering from the 
faith of my fathers. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 31 

" One day a great Minister from the vast and rich 
country of the Polytheopolitans, (which is the kingdom 
sought by all pilgrims from the land of Bndda and the 
Orient), insisted that I should then and there relate 
the outline of my journey ings. ' Religion, 5 said I to 
him, ' consists of an indefinite something which we will 
call spirit, which is rational Christianity, as opposed to 
the romantic or catholic Letter which killetk ; step by 
step, 5 said I to the learned querist, ' I travelled from 
the immense objective country of the Letter to the imper- 
ishable subjective land of the Spirit ; but in entering 
the land of Spirit, I was compelled to run hazardous 
risks, when journeying from No-Man's-land wherein 
exists sure Theism, to One-Man's-land, wherein abideth 
pure Atheism, and thence to Rich-Man's-land, wherein 
is found popular Protestantism ; but, Heaven be praised ! 
here at last I am in the country of reverence, faith, 
obedience, gratitude, hope, and love — the rich and non- 
immortal land of the monotheopolitans.' " 

The sage was here interrupted by a white-haired 
prophetess, who asked, — " Pray, sir, how is it that the 
citizens of your wealthy land are numbered among the 
non-immortal ? " 

" Because we utterly refuse to search with our five 
senses for signs and symbols. Evidence through Bud- 
distic materialities we will not receive. Such gods as 
houses, stones, images, talking horns, tipping tables, 
writing on the arm, ghosts of dead men ! ! our citizens, 
with their extremely tenacious excitabilities in the most 
cultured parts of the brain, reject such signs of im- 



32 THE DIAKKA 

mortal life. Wherefore it is granted unto us that we 
die perfectly dead at the end and thus achieve the 
whole purpose of our present being." * 

At this saying all the sages with one accord lifted the 
metal-and-glass hampers from before their eyes. Then 
they crossed their legs over to the other side ; while not 



* A writer in the Day Break, issued February 7, 1873, meets this 
point, thus : That the educated materialists of the Caucasian race 
cannot arrogate to themselves a monopoly of thought on the material 
plane, may be gathered from the valuable narrative of the hero of 
the day, Mr. H. M. Stanley, in his book, lately published, " How I 
Found Livingstone. " The following replies to Mr. Stanley, from a 
black man of the land of Mgogo, are so like the style of argument 
held by some of his Caucasian brothers, that we are led to the con- 
clusion that we are all more or less in a state of infancy, and that 
there are two classes of opinions the opposite of each other all the 
world over : each class much alike everywhere, the only difference 
being in the greater art of putting an opinion attained by the higher 
or more educated races. 

Here is the dialogue between Mr. Stanley and a Mgogo man : 

" Who do you suppose made your parents ? " 

" Why, Mulungu, white man." 

" Well, who made you ? " 

" If G-od made my father, God made me, didn't he ? "' 

u That's very good. Where do you suppose your father is gone to, 
now that he is dead ? " 

u The dead die," said he solemnly, " they are no more. The sul- 
tan dies — he becomes nothing ; he is then no better than a dead dog, 
he is finished, his words are finished — there are no words from him. 
It is true" he added, seeing a smile on my face, u the sultan be- 
comes nothing. He who says other words is a liar. There ! " 

u Then he is a very great man," is he not ? " 

u While he lives only; after death he goes into the pit, and there 
s no more to be said of him than of any other man." 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 33 

a few caressed their knees and combed their beards with, 
their nervous fingers ; meanwhile all participated in 
smiling ineffably into the very eyes of the Grand Presi- 
dent, whose face seemed pale and furrowed with 
^mingled emotions of gratitude, doubt, joy, and despair. 
(The narrator here mentioned the lofty absurdity of 
the reasoning* which denied at once his own existence 
and the world which he had but just left behind 
him!) 

And yet the second sage proceeded : " Religion, 
wherever you find it, as far as it goes, is always one 
and the same ; and "this pleasing aspiration called ' im- 
mortality, 5 has little to do with its progressive develop- 
ment or application to life. A Mussulman is governed 
by a religious philosophy as high as the cultured ration- 
alists of Notsob. The poet Shiraz, the famous Hafiz 
of the Orient, taught the golden rule in these appealing 
lines : 

" ' Learn from yon orient shell to love thy foe, 

And store with pearls the hand that brings thee woe ; 

Free, like yon rock, from base, vindictive pride, 

Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side ; 

Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower 

With fruit nectarious, or the balmy flower ; 

All nature cries aloud, shall man do less 

Than heal the smiter and the raiier bless ? ' 

" Thus," the sage continued, " the unity of the spirit of 
religion is apparent through all the letters and organi- 
zations with which it may perchance be encompassed." 
At this moment one distinguished Hubopolitan, a 
scholar andv a man gifted in the lore of the transcen- 



34 THE DIAKKA 

dentalists, declared himself dissatisfied. He said it was 
"an insupportable misfortune to be so spiritual, so 
filled with the riches of conservative forces and corre- 
lative subjectivities, as not to inherit an immortal exist- 
ence. Cries of alarm should be raised. For one, I 
must be permitted to believe that my ' aspiration for 
immortality ' is somewhat more inherent and prophetic 
than the noble sage would have me think. My own 
longings teach me that the ' idea ' of living after death 
is not to be eliminated by cultivation of my intellectual 
powers. I am far too devotedly in love with God to 
admit that, in my constitution, Ho has cunningly fixed 
a flattery and a deception, which continually whispers 
that 'I shall never die,' but which by the processes of 
true culture, and through generations of time, shall 
nevertheless be eliminated from my mind, and at last 
rejected, even as an inherited and foolish superstition." 
The assemblage now began to resemble a council of 
war. ,-jA disturbing influence like the disorder of Herod 
filtered through the feelings of the learned men. One 
of the most agreeable and the sweetest of the proph- 
etesses, who looked enough perfect to be the wife of 
Csesar, raised her eyebrows and chin, and opened 
her winsome mouth and said : " The son of the high- 
priest Jehoiada, whose name was Zachariah, w r as or- 
dered by a Jewish King to be stoned to death in the 
temple, simply because that prophet had bravely given 
good counsel to the people and to the King. Zachariah 
thus suffered for saying things not agreeable, for 
prophesying heavy punishments to befall those who 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. do 

did wickedly. And now, it seems, because a sage tells 
liis story without flattering our vanity or approving 
our pleasing sentiments, he is, forsooth, to be stoned to. 
death by the spiritualists who feel" an affront! 5? 

Here the prophetess smoothed her winkled front and 
composed herself with matronly reserve and dignity. 
And for a time no one opened his mouth. Presently 
she resumed: "We stumble over the ground because 
it is new ground. We see before us new difficulties at 
the opening of every new path. We are confronted 
with two new questions. One is called Materialism, 
the other, Spiritualism. The first places supreme 
authority in matter and force ; the other in an indefi- 
nite something, call it what you will, say ' Spiritual 
Manifestations. 5 In the scheme of progress it is but 
natural to expect the ignorant to look upon miracles 
as the divine credentials, even as a serpent, a calf, 
a crocodile, or as a shell full of graven images may 
stand for so many gods and intelligent providences in 
the land of the heathen. For one I quite agree with 
the sage, and look gladly forward to the day when 
from my imagination the sentimental longiiag for per- 
sonal immortality will be eliminated." 

All at once four men stood up to speak. One ap- 
peared like a shipwrecked king, or like an astrologer 
recently recovered from a desert island, or a specimen 
dervish, or perchance a mendicant friar of Europe. 
(The narrator remarked, aside, that he himself mixed 
s and muddled up this man's thoughts.) The appearance 
of this learned man caused the others who had arisen 



86 THE DIAKKA 

to return to their former places. At tins he made a 
low bow in token of thanks for their obliging manners 
toward him. 

" Speaking of horses," he began, " a thought struck 
me that there is a kinship between men and horses, or 
rather between mankind and the docile brutes who 
serve us ; and it occurred to me that I may have been 
a, horse myself, or rather, when I am driving and whip- 
ping a horse, that I may be driving and whipping some 
very dear friend of mine who died years ago ; and it 
also occurred to me that it should be unlawful to abuse 
a dumb beast, inasmuch as one and the same spirit fills 

\ a man and the animal, and a wrong done to the one is 
a wrong committed against the other. This doctrine of 

^Metempsychosis is no proof of my mental unsoundness," 
he continued ; " here is transmigration argued by a 
learned law-giver, who showeth that my mind is not 
necessarily insane because of my belief. This belief is 
what is known as metempsychosis, which, simply stated, 
is a speculation as to the destiny of the soul after death, 
and is urged as an evidence of the insanity of the speaker. 
To no hunaan being has been given the positive knowl- 
edge of an existence after death. The instincts of the 
human mind prompt us to believe, or at least to hope, 
that, although there may be a death of the body, yet 
that there is an intellectual or spiritual part of our nat- 
ure which survives in some form or other. But, in a 
logical sense, there is no major premiss of knowledge ; 
it is, to all of us, either a matter of speculation, or a 
belief, based on the religious doctrines or tenets which 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 37 

we accept. The world is divided into many sects, each 
sect presenting a creed more or less different, as to a 
future state. This very doctrine, metempsychosis,, as 
shown in my case, has been believed in by Pythagoras, 

^ Plato, and others of the ancient philosophers and sages 
of the East, and even in modern times by intellectual, 
wise, and good men, and is at this day accepted by a , 

Marger portion of the human race on the globe at large 
than that which reject it. Moreover, if a Court is to 
ascribe insanity to a man, or a class of men constituting 
a sect, on account of his or their opinion or belief as to 
a future state, and a particular sect had, in fact, at- 
tained to a real knowledge of the future, the logical de- 
duction would necessarily be that a major portion of 
mankind, comprised in all other and different sects, 
were of unsound mind, or monomaniacs on that sub- 
ject. 

"Now," he continued, " the good man Jehoshaphat, 
who was once* a great king, and who was most myste- 
riously succeeded by his son, Jehoram, and who was en- 
tombed in royal style in Jerusalem, might have been a 
better man, notwithstanding he had faithfully imitated 
many of the actions of David, if he had never planned 
a battle, -ate fresh meat, whipped a horse, smoked segars, 
or imbibed immense quantities of Old Kentucky. My 
conclusion therefore, is: be kind to animals, because 

• they m&y be our relatives." 

With these words the shipwrecked king, who had 
the look of a sheikh, regained his seat on the sofa. 

* Notwithstanding all the care exercised by the magi, yet 



38 THE DIAKKA 

two of fchem and the prophetess smiled a smile that was 
a considerable distance across. But the Great Presi- 
dent did not smile, neither did he longer remain seated, 
but made a motion signifying his wish to be heard. 
Wherefore you will now read the 

STORY OF THE THIRD SAGE. 

" If the narrations so far have greatly excited your 
wonder," he began, " then your amazement will know 
no bounds when you shall hear what I have to relate. 
At some things said here I have 'been excessively 
astonished, and I confess that in every word I have 
found either hint or fact, by which I may derive 
wisdom. But I have exalted my sails and put to sea too 
many times to be alarmed by rolling billows or flashing 
tempests. I entreat you all, both prophetesses and 
magi, to hear what I have to say." 

The sages looked inquiringly at each other, and the 
women seemed uneasy, as if they were about to hear 
some unpleasant intelligence ; but they all took a 
different hitch in their chairs, looked up good-naturedly 
through their spectacles, and thus signified their readi- 
ness to listen. 

Three days intervened. On the morning 1 of the fourth day, " David 
Exodus" — alias "Loga" — alias " Boston John " — alias "Wm. Henry 
Cambridge " — reappeared with his pure Oriental features, rather 
dark visage, olive complexion, bright piercing eye, twinkling with 
subtle wit ; and immediately there entered the room a girl full of 
the freshness and loveliness of childhood ; her light golden hair in 
profusion curling around the forehead and flowing in wavy ringlets 
over her rounded neck and shoulders ; a face beautiful with laughing 
dimples; her attractive countenance delicately veiled with an ex- 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 39 

pression of singular tenderness ; a graceful and healthy beauty in 
her every gesture and bodily movement. This saving angel, his 
redeeming guardian, looked at him for a moment, then stretched out 
her hand yearningly toward him, which he tenderly covered with 
his own, his eyes speaking volumes of love and gratitude. It was 
not consistent at that moment to ask him to let me understand the 
object of her appearance by his side. But I had a conviction 
(subsequently confirmed) that her influence upon him was that of 
^ truth and love exerted upon a mind abandoned to self -gratification 
N in trifling with what millions of earthly minds deem sacred, sad, and 
momentous. He proceeded as follows : — 



SPEECH OF THE THIRD SAGE. 

" My forefathers," he began, " were ministers of onr 
holy religion. So were all my foremothers also minis- 
ters. These ministered unto their husbands, even as 
the latter ministered unto the people ; and in me you 
observe the combined administrations of the whole line 
of ministering ministers. 

"Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, I have in- 
herited the trait of strict honesty ; and along with much 
that is aristocratic and exclusive, I find in me a strong 
tendency to personal freedom and honorable indepen- 
dence. All my misfortunes have arisen from this ten- 
dency, which, in the face of a proud ancestry, and 
against the wishes of living relatives and many famous 
men in the ministry, I have spared no pains -to gratify. 
Ministers, as you are very well aware, are born with a 
veil over their faces. They also inherit spectacles, 
wife, children, houses, and lands ; hence they are half- 
blind at birth, and see things through their delicate im- 
aginations, as if peering ' through a glass darkly.' The 
highest Pisgah peak is the point where self-annihilation 



40 THE DIAKKA 

is evolved from their inner consciousness. This was 
my first misfortune. 55 

The sage here turned slightly pale and trembled. 
Yet he continued his address, thus : " As I look back 
to my first sermon, it seems almost a dream, fall of 
great lights and various shadows, which show the pict- 
ure in all its complex beauty and uncertainty. Al- 
though a minister, I had resolved upon freedom of 
conscience, individuality of character, and a life con- 
secrated to the service of humanity. Of this resolve 
the basis was honesty, and in laying this corner-stone 
all my troubles began. People full of self-indulgences 
being rich and in my best-cushioned pews just before 
the altar, expect a preacher, whose large salary they 
pay, to wink at their faults and tickle their vices. 
Again, these wealthy occupants of the choice seats near 
the pulpit, with fine susceptibilities and a pampered 
appetite of excitement, can forgive impropriety, but 
not dulness. One day I drew a low-water line of 
morals in the great metropolis. So long as my remarks 
were abstract, the rich and proud listened with respect 
and admiration. They looked like lambs beneath a 
visitation of eloquence and New England culture. 
Presently, however, I ventured to apply conclusions, 
and instantly their aesthetic taste was minus quality, a 
complete moral indifference laid broadly upon every 
face, and in five minutes the sweetest and choicest 
flowers of my congregation appeared like lethargic ar- 
tists of the mediaeval ao*es. 

" Again, one day I drew a low-water line of social 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 41 

life in the modern Sodom. A crusader, or a Puritan in 
the days of perpendicular virtue, could not have more 
disenchanted the questions of love and matrimony. I 
pictured the vulgarization of marriage which prevailed 
under the name of true affection between the sexes. 
Instantly my hearers lost all their boasted spiritual in- 
sight ; they complained that I had overheated the 
family oven. Instead of acknowledging the abounding 
ignorance, blindness, folly, sin, and wretchedness, they 
professed next day to be more than half -pi eased because 
the public scribes published my discourse as in advo- 
cacy of Free Love ! 

" Now, speaking of evolving from one's inner con- 
sciousness, I have some ' eliminations,' some 6 inspira- 
tions,' some full-fledged c conclusions,' which have come 
to me over oceanic thoughts and infinite feelings ; one 
is the smoking out of orthodox doctrines concerning 
the Saviour of mankind. No spiritual insight can dis- 
cern a historical Jesus as essential to religion. Love 
x descends and broods with infinite tenderness over the 
N wants, sins, and sorrows of humanity. It is simply 
dramatic to suppose all the blessings of God bestowed 
in the form of one man. Poets, artists, astrologers, 
may favor specialism. A thousand varied charms hang 
on the religious rosary of unreasoning mind. No 
sage, however, can maintain in his inner consciousness 
a permanent faith in an historical saviour. The deeper 
the piety, the profounder one's sense of the celestial in 
man's nature, the more superficial and untenable this 
Vv belief in the priestly doctrines of salvation. So I have 



\ 



42 THE DIAKKA 

f eliminated ' tlie historical Jesus from true psychology 
and religion. And while I was about it, I let the idea 
of personal immortality go by the board ; regarding it 
as a sentiment very sweet and fascinating in itself, but 
hardly aesthetic, rather crude, utterly useless, except as 
a subjective enchantment, and worthless to one wholly 
born again in free religion." 

An expression of great pain and bitter grief covered 
the face of a sage who sat to the left of the speaker. 
His feelings were terribly macerated. He seemed to 
choke and to swallow with difficulty like one stricken 
with an Egyptian plague. Zadok the high-priest could 
not have shot harder looks at the prophet of Solomon's 
mother. And the prophet Nathan could not have vis- 
ually stabbed Benaniah, the captain of the guards ; and 
yet the distressed sage did nothing with his hands, but 
widely opened his mouth, and asked : " Pardon me, oh 
minister and sage and the son of a minister, if you 
swear by Almighty God, and in the presence of these 
venerable sages here assembled (to say nothing of the 
prophetesses who grace this meeting with their perfumed 
presence), that you do not want to live after death ? " 

Timorously then the Great President replied : " What 
is the use of it ? We have more talents than we can 
justly use here. And of the many talents we have and 
use here, most of them perish before we become old; 
and, as for myself, I frankly confess that I do not see 
progress ahead ; only decay of one's powers, and pos- 
sibly imbecility at the end of life's journey." 

At this remark, the sage who had before spoken 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 43 

seemed smitten with a more distressing plague than 
before. His mouth opened helplessly like one in a fit, 
his hands tumbled down at his sides, his legs straight- 
ened out insomuch that his feet touched the brocade 
garment of a spectacled prophetess seated before him, 
and for all the world he resembled Hiram, who was of 
the tribe of Naphtali, and who constructed for Solomon 
two pillars of brass. This modern Hiram, of the tribe 
of Notsobians, closed his mouth sufficiently to articulate 
these words, addressed to the great and learned sage 
yet standing : " Sir, do you not know that communica- 
tion with the inhabitants of the eternal world has been 
Agoing on all around you for twenty-five years? And 
can you, as an honest man, as a noble sage and a birth- 
right minister of a free religion, deny that you have 
any knowledge of these demonstrations ? " 

The Great President then advanced a step or two, 

and holding his right hand over the old sage's head, 

which was bowed low with big thoughts, replied: 

" Still, again, must we come back tp the use of it. The 

x main objection to communicating with spirits, so-called, 

x is that it tends to sap the foundation of personal char- 

x acter, and to beget loose habits of weak dependence upon 

Mhe feelings and judgments of others. It is wiser, in 

the light of Free Religion, to obtain evolutions from 

/one's own inner consciousness than to get messages 

Xfrom spirits. It were better for the millions to rely 

\ upon their own individual judgments than to depend 

Mrpon the guidance of any other being, human or angel, 

finite or infinite." 



44 THE DIAKKA 

Here a meek-eyed, esthetic, Moses-looking guest in- 
terrupted with the question : " Do you believe in 
prayers, sir? Do you trust in a superintending and 
protecting Providence ? What do you pray for at fu- 
nerals ? What efficacy in praying for consolation when 
in trouble? Petitions and supplications, seekings and 
thanksgivings, I have heard from your lips in prayer- 
time. What do you mean by such a service ? Do you 
pray to and supplicate, and invoke the protection and 
superintendence of, nothing but your own inner con- 
sciousness ? " 

Many of the spectacled prophetesses seemed mightily 
displeased at the impudent behavior of the interrogator. 
They threw out their chins in a mood of defiance, min- 
gled with a dogmatic freedom of conscience peculiar to 
ISTotsobians. Many seemed unjust towards man, and 
unmindful of the eternal life they had received from 
God ; but they said not a word ; although one, more 
impressible than the rest, who resembled Lot's wife in 
the expression of her countenance, looked daggers at 
the meek interrogator ; then she suddenly turned red 
in the face, as if about to die with choked utterance. 

But the Great President stood his ground like King 

Pharaoh when the water of the Red Sea was up to his 

armpits. To him the Spiritualists were nothing more 

v than a flying army running headlong out of the Egypt 

Xof orthodoxy, and bound for a terrible life of wander- 

\ing in the great wilderness of graven images, golden 

calves, jumping mediums, and tables of stone loaded 

sumptuously with meats and viands from strange lands 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 45 

beyond the S£a. Yea, verily, the spiritualists (he 
thought) are indeed Israelites fleeing from bondage to 
creeds ; and for this reason he (the President) could 
not and did not condemn them ; but he reproached 
them because they insist upon going rashly after signs 
and wonders, even rushing through the divided sea of 
science, in order to evade the supreme authority of the 
inner consciousness. 

An inward lamentation suddenly came to his deliv- 
erance. He seemed like a husbandman who went forth 
to sow in the winter time when the fields would not 
receive the seed. So he was immediately determined 
to utter no word more in that assemblage. Whereupon 

\a necromantic woman, who claimed the power to bring 

\up the souls of the dead, announced that at her house 
the sages would find welcome, and that for such as 
were of inquiring mind, who wished truth for the use 
and benefit of humanity, she would gladly endeavor to 

N manifest indisputable signs that angels were once our 
earthly friends. The narrator stealthily accepted the 
necromantic woman's invitation. But many who had 
worn sacerdotal garments, and who had pitched their 

Scamps over against the mountains of aesthetic culture 
and popularity, refused even to thank the woman for her 
voluntary kindness. So now, therefore, leaving the 
sages of Notsob, we will listen to the story of the 
necromantic woman. 

CURIOUS SCENES IN NOTSOB. 

Our way to the residence of the mysterious lady 



4:6 THE DIAKKA 

necessitated that our feet should pass by the shore of 
the beautiful pond (called by the imaginative, " lake- 
let") which lies tranquilly in the midst of the city. 
There was a curiously decorated fountain which show- 
ered its waters towards the rising sun ; the wind blow- 
ing at that moment from the great West, which, at 
this hour of the day, frequently happens in Notsob. 

Now, although the narrator was abundantly absorbed 
by the Phoenician-like embellishments of the fountain, 
which the waters gracefully played over and around, he 
failed not to hear mentally the voice of one just arrived 
from the neighboring town, known as the city of the 
Bunker Pj^ramid. In the language of persuasion pe- 
culiar to citizens of that noted town of the renowned 
Charles, he politely thus addressed the narrator : 

" Sir, if it be agreeable to you, this hour is appointed 
by the authorities in charge to exhibit the great cymba- 
lum mundi, which in Cambridgian dialect signifies the 
biggest i Drum of the World.' " 

If this man had been the renowned son of Molo, 
namely, Appolonius himself, his speech could not have 
exerted greater seductive power. He was exceedingly 
learned in philosophy, knowing well how to lay bare 
the words spoken by enemies and simple fools ; with 
divine skill he exposed perfidiousness ; and with the 
fire of his wrath melted and solved the chains which 
wicked calumnies had forged on every hand. This 
man's mind entertained a divine rage against facetious 
trifling with truth ; against current hypocrisy, super- 
fooleries ; and against fashionable lies he was easily 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 47 

roused to gigantic opposition ; so that in the provinces 
of ISTotsob, and indeed throughout the whole country, 
his reputation was established for rhythmical flow of 
words, studded with adjectives which should be un- 
speakable, and with expletives which did not add to the 
strength and clearness of his argumentations. It is re- 
markable, nevertheless, what power this man, when 
speaking in public, sends through vast multitudes, like 
unto a flash of lightning which at once fills a great tem- 
ple with burning lamps. He had abstracted a cour- 
ageous nature like a soldier, and an engine-like mind, 
from his father ; hence he feared not to invite the nar- 
rator to visit the great Drum of the World ; neither did he 
lack language wherewith to describe the instrument, 
the volume of its sound, nor the remarkable ejections of 
its noises among the inhabitants.* 

When about to start for the immense house of sounds 
that was built and set apart for the Drum, we were 
accosted by another citizen — one like unto Marcus An- 
tonius, a man who (in his own estimation) had never 
gone astray from science and truth, but had faithfully 
loved Tiis neighbors' wives more than riches or the 
pleasures of religion. He opened his mouth smilingly, 
and (without knowing it!) unto the narrator said: — 

" Am I mistaken, sir, in imagining that you dislike 
pompous shows % " 

The narrator (as is his wont), replied not a word, but 

* * The reader will keep in his memory all the time that a Diakka is 
certain to consider himself " invited" to go with any one to any 
place where there seems a good opening for tricks and fun. 



48 TIIE DIAKKA 

with his eyes plainly said : " Upon deliberation, O An- 
tonius, I would infinitely rather sit by the fountain of 
water that runs perpetually in the midst of the city." 

But the first man, who came from the town of the 
narrow-waisted Pyramid, at this moment, felt uncom- 
monly starved for a fight with the intruder.* A red- 
ness of ra<2;e in a moment dishonored his commanding 
features. " By the gods of Adelphi ! " said he, with 
boldness and madness — " Do you not know, sir, that 
this traveller (the narrator) just from the city of the 
Wilderness, is circumcised, and is therefore galled to 
the quick by this uncalled-for interference? " 

Antonius deserved to be admired for his self-control 
and great prudence while smarting under this bitter as- 
sault. His reply was : "And has it then come to pass 
that no person can enter our city of crookednesses with- 
out being allured into houses consecrated to big Drums 
and musical Monsters ? f Such barbarities," he contin- 
ued, " would have made the gods of wisdom and good 
manners blush even into the richest principalities of 
Solomon." 

Fortunately, at this moment, a learned savan, who 
had written the " Bible of the Ages," approached, and 
magician-like, changed the conversation. He was just 
come from the congregation of virtuous mothers and 
matronly virgins, who were neither atheists nor man- 
haters as the priests had perfidiously promulgated ; but • 

* This feeling 1 to get up a fight with no provocation, is a trick of 
- the intermeddling Diakka. 

f The Great Gilmore Jubilee was at this time held in Boston. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 49 

the truth was that they had assembled themselves on 
the pinnacles of history, crying, with voices running 
over with persuasions and threatenings, thus : " A voice 
from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the 
four winds, a voice against the Nation's Capitol and the 
Legislatures ; a voice against the Senators and Repre- 
sentatives, and a voice against the whole male portion 
of the world's population!" The learned and just- 
minded author of the Bible of. the Ages related how the 
lamentations of the beautiful women had a melancholy 
refrain — " Woe, woe to ourselves, unless the Senators give 
Mis the sixteenth amendment!" Nor did they hesitate 
to foreshadow the utter overthrow of the Republic, 
if the law-givers did not repent and turn from their 
loaves and fishes, and at once give political liberties to 
the virgins of Notsob ; even to all living women whose 
foremothers had originated the populations, working- 
women who had fed and spanked the boys who, as men, 
all now pompously assert their manhood and their ex- 
clusive mastership — the same being a disgrace to the 
asses which had the honor to be mentioned in the most 
ancient of Scriptures, one of which was owned by Rev. 
Dr. Baalam. 

Hearing of these things as related by the trustworthy 
savan aforementioned, it was immediately proposed by 
the first courageous man, who came from the town of 
the Pyramid of Bunker (and it was also agreed by the 
second person who was like Antonius of old), that we 
four should turn aside from the gardens and fountains 
in the midst of the city, and from the house of the 
3 



50 



THE DIAKKA 



Drum of the World,- and from the super-barneous tem- 
ple dedicated to the magicians of song, and to the for- 
eign demoniacs of instrumental sounds, and proceed 
straightway to the forum of the three hills, called by 
the Notsobians the Temple of Tremont ; wherein, ac- 
cording to the report of the writer of the Bible of the 
Ages, the husbandless wives of the provinces, and the 
virtuous mothers of ungrateful young men, and the cult- 
ured virgins in spectacles, who wished all men in the 
lake of Asphaltitis, were assembled on the prodigiously 
high pinnacles of human history, crying — " Woe, woe to 
man — to man — to manKIND ! " The narrator politely 
assured the three men, mentally, thus: " Your propo- 
sition is most agreeable to me, I can assure you ; but 
are we not now on the straight way w T hich leadeth to 
the necromantic woman, w T hose wonderful story we each 
have promised to hear ? " 

Immediately each mind began to argue and to answer 
the narrator that such a thing as " a straight way " was 
not known to the oldest inhabitant of Notsob ; and 
they all affirmed, with much courtesy and more sidewise 
laughter, that it would be quite as easy to find the wo- 
man's habitation if one should travel a mile or two in any 
direction among the mysterious labyrinths of the city. 

Being thus persuaded, the narrator committed his 
soul to the keeping of the Virgin Son, who, according 
to the traditions of eastern natives, was born of a 
\ woman who had had several children before the idea of 
X being a virgin took full command of her religious as- 
pirations. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 51 



LAMENT OF THE WOMEN OF WOE. 

On entering the forum of the three hills, called by 

the populace, the Temple of Tremont, we saw seated in 

the chair of Order, the white-haired and dignified 

\Epaphroditus, the renowned William — deliverer of the 

vAfricans from generations of servitude and sorrow. 

On his left sat a wedded virgin, of compact figure 
and agreeable face, beaming with modesty and adorned 
with a look ef intelligence, called, in the traditions of 
Notsob, the " Stone " ; which embodiment many of the 
learned assert is the identical relic of ancient days — the 
stone hewn out of a huge mountain, celebrated for its 
many Black-wells — the very granite rock and founda- 
tion Stone which the builders at one time had the bound- 
less folly to reject. On the right of the most excellent 
and dignified Epaphroditus, whose duty was to keep 
order and call time, sat the distinguished and graceful 
Virgin Juliana; and in a crescent row beyond were a 
x number of extreme chronic feminine proprieties — chaste, 
pure, immaculate — wearing spectacles and long hair, 
and clothed in raiment as beautiful as were any robes 
ever worn by Ceres, who, in the discharge of her celes- 
tial duties and in the enjoyments of her equal rights, 
gave birth and natural nourishment to that young scamp, 
the perfidious Bacchus of the renowned Mysteries. 

, The male antiquities of Notsob occupied the seats in 
the main body of the temple. Many of them appeared 
to have been born prior to the period at which proud 



52 THE DIAKKA 

mothers attain to the ao;e of virtue.* It was remark- 
able with what precision of speech and excellency of 
manners the beautiful women on either side of the ven- 
erable Epaphroditus conducted their discussions and 
likewise themselves. But there was one procurator 
there, a male antiquity, who was given to very much 
exhortation, and with determined ambition to direct 
affairs for the women, who pulled the wires of trickery, 
and rolled the logs of time-serving policy, wherefore he 
was esteemed worthy to be called captain of the Mace- 
donians of the great Occident. Swayed by this man, 
the women committed themselves in speech to many 
temporizing propositions. 

"We have seen," said they, "a meteor in the East, 
claiming to be the star of this movement!" At which 
speech all groaned aloud, as if in terrible pain, and as 
with one voice they all added — "A virgin shall con- 
ceive without sin, and bring forth without sin, and with- 
out sin the child shall grow to manhood, and then he 
shall become the deliverer of all women who shall be 
born after the death of his mother ! " 

Now, hearing this outcry, without discerning the bear- 
ing thereof upon the question of woman's enfranchise- 
ment, the narrator stealthily pressed the courageous Sat- 
urninus, of the town of the Pyramid, and asked him 
politely if he could not address the throne (rostrum), and 
thus get an outward eloquent explanation of so much 
mysterious confusion concerning virtue, virgins, chastity, 

* Aside the Diakka said : u Some highly learned anthropologists 
assert this period to commence when childbearing is impossible." 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 53 

etc. And immediately his voice broke forth upon the 
congregation with a roaring magnificence. He uttered 
many red-hot words, with the strength of the lion, and 
with the threatening crash of the thunderbolt ; and yet 
the pith of his speech may be condensed into this already 
famous interrogation — " Why is this thus ? " 

Whereupon the valiant Captain of the Macedonians, 
who might also be called the chief weaver of political 
webs, rose to his feet and denied everything, from the 
least to the greatest. He said that " there was (and the 
"narrator backed him) no confusion, no misunderstand- 
ing, no differences, no nothing, but the sweetest and 
loveliest harmony " — all this, and no mistake ! 

At this point, one of the male antiquities interrupted 
and cried to " make a statement." He was ordered by 
the just Epaphroditus to take his seat. 

A woman of modest bearing then said : " Mr. Presi- 
dent : there is a strange woman in a distant heathen 
city who claims to have the lead of Suffrage for Woman. 
She is a dangerous pillar of fire by day, and not a 
model of moonshine by night. We have been driven 
from the Eden of respectability, notwithstanding our 
innocence, because the Social god of righteousness is 
bound to punish transgression. Our burden is heavy, 
and, owing to an original scantiness in the foundation 
of our charity, and in the garments of our loving-kind- 
ness, we are unable to bear up under this imputation of 
sin. If we were men it would be different, although it 
ought not to make any difference ; for the sin of vice 
should not be confined to women any more than polit- 



54 THE DIASKA 

ical privileges and immunities should belong to men 
exclusively. But the gods have otherwise decreed. 
Therefore we want to be universally recognized as the 
'Yirgins of Notsob, advocates of Woman's Suffrage,' 
with no affinity for the afore-mentioned heathenish ad- 
venturess, who, inspired by her devilish ambition for 
position and power, is at once a disgrace to womankind 
and the acknowledged Queen of Hades, although bear- 
ing the first name of a great reigning Queen." 

The excitement in the congregation became immedi- 
ately alarming. When he could be heard, the venera- 
ble head man of Order — the Anti-Slavery Master Wil- 
liam—the same who was for thirty years the Deliverer 
of the exiled children of Africa, said : 

" All this touches not the question. Whether a man 
is virtuous or not, or whether a man is sober or not, is a 
matter not concerned in his recognition as a citizen, or 
in his right to the ballot. Neither, therefore, ought 
questions of a purely personal character be foisted upon 
this meeting as bearing for or against the enfranchise- 
ment of woman. Hence, in the honest opinion of the 
chairman, all w^ho attempt to speak concerning these 
side-issues are out of order." 

The prudence and moderation of Epaphroditus, not 
to speak of his righteousness and the wide humanity of 
his decision, served to allay the general excitement and 
apprehension. But the Notsobian virgins unhappily 
manifested in their faces many vicious qualities. They 
had stoned the heathen woman, whose Christian name 
was Victoria, but she was not yet dead ; wherefore the 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 55 

sinless virgins yearned to inflict further public punish- 
ment, and it was exceedingly hard to restrain them. 

Now, however, the hour had come for the narrator to 
depart with the party for the house of the necromantic 
woman. He was thus reluctantly obliged to turn his 
back upon the white-robed, eloquent women of Notsob. 
They had filled his heart of hearts with beauteous de- 
sires to become holier than any other ; for then he could 

vin an instant detect sin in others, and feel himself au- 
thorized to calumniate, vilify, stone, and destroy. 

But here we are already at the habitation of the mys- 
terious medium woman. We will enter, make our 
apologies for delay, and listen to her wonderful story. 

x (The narrator will, now and then, slip in a word, to 
touch up the items in her memory.) 

STORY OF THE NECROMANTIC WOMAN. 

Arrived at the circumscribed porch, the narrator im- 
pressed all present to give thanks for their deliverance 
from the serpentine ways and labyrinthian courts of 
the City of Notsob. After this solemn service, and not 
wishing to rush rashly upon the retirement of the mar- 
vellous woman, he influenced the party to linger and 
meditate long and unprofltably in the reception room of 
her own hired habitation. While waiting thus, many 
guests, profound seekers for testy evidences, were 
ushered in from the city of serpentine ways. Present- 
ly the necromantic lady herself, in simple garb, en- 
tered. She welcomed all our party with much gentle 



56 THE DIAKKA 

grace, and with great handsomeness of manner, which 
was highly spoken of. 

Now it was incidentally manifested that each person 
had come to her upon the same mysterious and undefin- 
able errand. They had come to witness signs and to 
procure testimony of their right to live forever! A 
mysterious court of probate was thus organized, where- 
in the " Will of the Almighty " was to be passed upon ; 
and the guests present, being cultured ladies and gentle- 
men, were both witnesses and associate judges of the 
validity of the last testament and bequest of the un- 

! known Testator. After the Notsobian burning gas- 
light within the room was toned down to a mellow 
haze, most congenial to lovers in the arms of enchant- 
ment, the lady suddenly yielded herself limp and 
thoughtless, and closed her eyes as in prayer. All 
present kept the sacred silence profound for a little 
time; which was terminated by the opening of the 
lady's mouth, from which mechanically flowed the fol- 
lowing words : 

You, each of you, seek to know of your immortality 
through tests and addresses from persons in the spirit 
world unknown to this medium. You would know, 
each for himself, whether departed spirits watch over 
you, daily and hourly. [The Diakka (i.e., the 
narrator) being invisible, enjoyed the scene and the 
solving of this problem in the extreme.] We will give 
you tests and addresses, although it is important to re- 
member that the process of translation and transmission 

\from the spirit world to you necessarily modifies some- 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 57 

^tiling, possibly more or less everything, in the communi- 
cation. Flowers and grain expand and ripen to perfec- 
tion under the glorious white rays of the sun. And 
N yet every tiny petal of the flower, and every little part 
^of the expanding grain, in some degree modifies each 
^burning ray that is transmitted from the so-called all- 
controlling sun." 

While the thoughtless and limp lady was thus speak- 
ing, the room near the ceiling was suddenly enchanted 
by many interesting colored lights! These brilliant 
exhibitions, more dazzling to the imagination than the 
flaming lights of the unknown North, (in which the 
v narrator had a finger !) were by the entranced lady re- 
ferred to — thus : 

" Colors represent your spiritual development. Light, 
love, truth, purity, sincerity, wisdom have leaves and 
flowers of their own that spread forth with colors, dif- 
fering in size and brilliancy, because they are repre- 
sentations and types of your individual feelings and 
conditions.""* 

At this moment the lady, flooded- with a dramatic 
force and purpose, pointed toward a robust stranger in 
the rear of the room. " Captain Casey ! " said she, 
with a startling tragical emphasis. The gentleman re- 
ferred to blushed a blazing red, and bowed his head in 
alarmed silence. " For six and twenty years," she con- 
tinued, still dramatically addressing him, " your path- 
way stretched across the broad ocean. Your vessel is 

* The narrator declared to the author, in reply to a question, that 
N he had nothing to do whatever with the formation of her sentences. 
3* 



58 THE DIAKKA 

not swift, nor beautiful, but she is large and powerful ; 
otherwise she could not have encountered unharmed 
the storms of your last voyage ; nor could you have 
outlived the dangerous icebergs and fields of floating 
ice off the banks of New Foundland." 

" True ! true ! " exclaimed the gentleman, who 
was a perfect stranger to the medium, and equally un- 
known to every other person present. 

" When you were about a thousand miles from 
Queenstown, captain," she continued, " and in great 
anxiety because your vessel was leaking badly, did you 
not seem to hear the voice of your old commander, Cap- 
tain Coates, saying, i Helm hard aport — never fear ' % 
And did you not obey the impression ? Then did you not 
soon find and stop the leak between decks % And then 
did you not sail out of all danger ? And were you not 
successful to the end of your voyage ? " 

" Captain Coates!" exclaimed the gentleman with a 
gleesome shout — " Captain Coates ! my mother's only 
brother, who was my uncle, and best friend, commander 
of the gallant craft Tripoli, the first vessel I took a 
voyage in — wny, Captain ! are you really here present ? " 

All listened for the medium's reply. Not a word 
from the mouth of the necromantic lady! Sybilline 
silence prevailed for several minutes. At this point 
\the Diakka touched off some lights on the walls of the 
room. Then she stretched forth her w^hite hand, 
tremblingly, and pointed towards a dark-complexioned, 
Spanish-looking gentleman, (very like a Diakka !) who 
sat in front and very near her. " Dr. Albert Morse ! " 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 59 

she said, addressing him familiarly, as though she had 
always known and loved him intimately. 

" How do you like the tapestried divans in the pal- 
aces of the Viceroy? You did not know that your 
guardian angel went with you, did you?" 

In consequence of this speech the gentleman's face 
turned suddenly white, like one overcome with aston- 
ishment; but he quickly and firmly collected himself, 
and asked : " Will the controlling intelligence tender 
me the true name of my guardian in the spirit world ?" 

" Fannie Galton ! "immediately replied the limp lady. 
And, lo ! the stranger straightway acknowledged that in 
his boyhood he did know a playmate bearing that name ! 

The lady of enchantment continued in these words : 
" Immense rooms ; gorgeous furniture ; gold and silver 
decorations ; round silver tables trimmed with gems ; 
sweet sounds from constantly flowing fountains ; hun- 
dreds of waiting women in many-colored costumes ; 
finest silk and glittering satin covering walls and win- 
dows ; magnificence surrounded by ignorance and pov- 
erty ; wealth and luxury, built upon a foundation of 
public taxation and superstition." i 

The dark-visaged gentleman, thus addressed, testified 
his supreme astonishment. And he at once confessed 
that the mouth of the necromantic lady (her eyes during 
all this time remained closed) had spoken truly ; inas- 
much as he had been for years a resident of the East ; 
and had many times been admitted to the palaces of 
the Viceroy ; the appearances and scenes in the rooms 
of which she had correctly described. " My conversion 



60 THE DIAKKA 

and delight," he enthusiastically added, "would be 
boundless, if the lady could but tell me where Miss 
Fannie Galton lived, and when she died." 

At this moment the lady again stretched forth her 
hand, and, turning her perceptions interiorly towards 
the narrator (invisible to every other pair of eyes), her 
mouth said : " You are thinking, and you want me- to 
talk, concerning the mystery of sleep and dreaming." 

"Whom she was addressing, no guest present could 
form the least idea. Nothing could be more positive ! 
She was reading somebody's very thoughts ! Strange 
sybil ! Thus they thought among themselves. 

"Unthinking people" • • • • ( s he proceeded 
dreamily and slowly to say) • • • • "are fright- 
ened * ; ' • evil imaginations picture a burning, 
blazing hell • • • • they go away •■•""•.. or 
rather • • • • consign their enemies • • • • 
into everlasting punishment." 

The narrator enjoyed and listened ; he prompted her 
a little more ; then she made this reply : " The inhabit- 
ants of hell • • • • (speaking with hesitation) ■ • 

• • are ignorant, credulous, unhappy • • • • they 
live in wretched discord, and amid dire uncertainty 

• • * • They send confusion and falsities into 
our spiritual manifestations • • • • they entertain 
vicious opinions of human virtue ! " * 

* The narrator confessed to the author that he quailed and was 
unhappy beneath this discourse ; for it was the latest and freshest 
revelation of a place (the wilderness of the Diakka) which now he 
justly held in abhorrence. - 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 61 

" Wrangling egotists flourish in hell ! " she energet- 
ically said: " Worldly minded people live in hell ! The 
hypocrites make believe they are contented ! Sleep is 
as bad as hell to those whose brains float in unassimi- 
lated gases ! Wakefulness in sleep is a worse hell than 
solid slumber during hours of apparent wakefulness. 
If the crystalloidal substance of the Pantarchy be not 
unity with the dialized water held in suspension await- 
ing conversion, then the wakeful brain is dreaming of 
hell, and at such moments ordinary external influences 
communicate nothing worth reporting through the sen- 
sory nerves to the hell that is blazing and boiling within. 
You may yearn for the heaven of hydrate of chloral, 
but the hell of deadly night-shade is your portion." 

The narrator began to fear greatly that the locality 
named by the lady would seem to the audience to be 
not far from the tranquil habitations of Notsob. The 
language and the topic were exceedingly obscure ; but 
the place referred to, i.e., the country of the Diakka, 
needed no further commentary or elucidation. The 
V narrator said he felt that the eyes of the whole company 
were upon him, although he knew he was really invisi- 
ble. With grave apprehensions, therefore, he influ- 
enced the lady necromancer to say audibly whether she 
could discern " any of the friends of persons present in 
the aforementioned place ? " 

" O yes ! " she replied, quite too promptly to be agree- 
able to her listeners. " A great uncounted multitude of 
your friends reside in hell ! And what is remarkable 
is, that very many of those discordant characters f re- 



62 THE DIAKKA 

quently visit and make sad work among the inhabitants 
of Notsob." 

Information of this alarming character was greatly 
more entertaining to the company than flattering to the 
feelings of the narrator. He now began to think of 
Aristobolus, the same that was the first Jewish king 
after the Babylonian bondage, who put a head on the 
empire and a diadem upon his own head ; and he also 
began to call to mind his old friend Epiphanes, who was 
called Antiochus ; also to recall Asamoneus, the father 
of his own son called Matthias, and of groups of others 
yet more ancient ; for he was of mind to know of a 
certainty who of his multitude of old Notsobian friends 
were recognized residents of the aforementioned place, 
which in sacred Scriptures is with horrible gusto called 

HELL. 

While the narrator was thus thinking to himself, the 
mysterious lady opened her mouth, whence the follow- 
ing stream of pleasing words flowed playfully, like mu- 
sical waters sparkling and dancing from an overcharged 
fountain : " Men lay up for themselves treasures on 
earth, which are rich only in exceeding great suffering 
and sorrow — the only teachers some minds will ever 
attend to; whilst happiness and unalloyed delights sur- 
round those who lay up treasures beyond the reach of 
rust, corruption, and thieves." (This last term reminded 
the narrator painfully of his wilderness city of the poly- 
roga and the Diakka, which he had left behind him 
when he came upon this trip to JSTotsob.) " The human 
mind lives within the inner brain," she meditatively 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. G3 

continued : " and its bright visions point towards 
heavenly happiness, which is in store for the forever 
faithful." 

The audience listened in silence ; many minds not a 
little confused. Speaking of sleep, she went on : " One 
night (you remember it well) you were restless ; sleep 
would not come to your relief ; a grievous roar echoed 
along the shore of time ; your head ached, with fa- 
tigue, as you thought in your foolishness. What was the 
cause % 'Twas /, your unseen friend, who deprived you of 
so many hours of sleep. You were thus saved from a 
serious, almost diabolical, attack of the Diakka, with 
which you were at that'time threatened. Yes T y your own 
brother in heaven, your friend in spirit, in truth, and in 
love." This was addressed by another upper world 
visitor, who stood near the right side of the medium, to 
an open -countenanced auditor. After these words had 
been plainly uttered, the lady turned her still closed 
eyes toward others ; giving each something far more 
heavenly than was vouchsafed in her first discourse in- 
spired by the narrator ; although, possibly, to no person 
present was the essential substance of the different 
messages any more pertinent and convincing than to 
the narrator himself. 

At this point a distinguished citizen of Notsob 
whispered to one of our party and proffered free ad- 
mission to the Athenaeum — an opportunity of obtaining 
serene and elevated enjoyment not commonly granted 
to mundane guests, to say nothing of visitors from 
foreign celestial cities — which terrestrial Athenaeum, be- 



64 THE DIAKKA 

ing more accessible than ancient temples of learning, 
although known to the ancients by the same classic 
title, the narrator influenced the party to agree to con- 
template the amusements of the Athenians on the even- 
ing following. 

REMAKKABLE SCENES AT THE ATHENAEUM. 

In Notsob there lived a worldly wise and most trust- 
worthy philosopher, distinguished for his many manly 
deeds, and for manly methods in business circles, whose 
name was Croesus, with the ancient prefix of Isaac* 
He it was who hospitably opened to our party, and 
therefore to the narrator, the great door of the cele- 
brated temple sacred to the goddess Athena ; for, be it 
known, the Notsobians are a peculiar people, resembling 
the inhabitants of ancient Greece — in that they erect 
sacred temples, which are dedicated sometimes to one 
divinity and sometimes to many ; also they plume them- 
selves commendably upon Hadranian universities, and 
likewise they take high pleasure in high public schools ; 
and especially, under the triumphant commander Croe- 
sus, they have opened and endowed an establishment 
where lawyers, orators, artists, philosophers, sophists, 
poets, teachers, and unprincipled critics, may assemble 
to witness proceedings, recite their pieces, sing, culti- 
vate manners, promote literary and scientific tastes, and 

* In reply to a direct question the Diakka confessed that he re- 
ferred here to the business partner in the Banner of Light Publish- 
ing Company. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 65 

enjoy harmless association with congenial affinities for 
mutual improvement and innocent pastime. 

With the proffered freedom of entrance to this 
temple the narrator experienced delight. But, being 
invisible to the party, he wanted a fellow-companion. 
Wherefore he associated" unto himself one Benaiah, a 
man of valor, a freeman by birth, uncircumcised, yet 
quite popular as a constant inquisitor in the court of 
Psyche. Now this man stationed himself alongside of 
the narrator in the great Athenaeum of the Notsobians. 
Together they conversed and interchanged sentiments 
concerning the orations and other services prepared by 
the before-mentioned Croesus for the entertainment of 
the distinguished guests who had assembled. 

Immediately a Babylonian bell was heard within the 
forum ; and, behold, as by enchantment, a scene curi- 
ously constructed w T as exhibited ; not exceedingly un- 
like the pensile gardens arranged by Nebuchadnezzar, 
who, it was reported, erected the w T onderful walls of 
Babylon. 

Services and ceremonies at the Athenaeum continued 
for two hours ; consisting of short orations and imita- 
tions of the slender affections, the gold insanities, the 
meanness, and the baseness of some of the infamous 
citizens of another terrestrial city. The exhibition closed 
with a thrilling discourse on wild Indian life, accom- 
panied with sounds of drums, the howling horns, and 
scratching of stringed instruments — the whole teaching 
the plain and wholesome moral that " to be born an In- 
dian is a great folly and an unpardonable crime." But 



06 THE DIAKKA 

not unto tins day is it known what were the thoughts of 
the narrator's companion and inquisitor, Benaiah ; for, al- 
though during the orations and imitation, his face shone 
as did ISToureddin's, when that prince first beheld the 
Beautiful Persian, yet when he departed for his ow T n 
lonely Diakka court, there was a mysterious and vin- 
dictively determined look upon him like that which was 
upon the countenance of Noureddin, at the moment 
when Hajji Hassan sold the beautiful slave to the re- 
pulsive Vizier Saouy. This same Vizier to this day is 
known as " The Hunter " in the -Diakka country. It 
was very far otherwise with the narrator ; inasmuch as 
he resolved to remember the hospitality of Croesus; 
and during the entertainment, which he with others 
witnessed, the narrator laughed with those who laughed, 
and so did Benaiah ! 

TRANSFORMATION SCENE IN THE VICINITY OF NOTSOB. 

Now it came to pass that one Jeremiah opened his 
heart to the narrator ; took pity upon him ; lamented 
that he was yet in bondage to the puzzling labyrinthine 
ways of the Diakka; and, out of the fulness of his 
kindness, invited him to his solemn and sacred suburban 
retreat. This was situated upon the crown of what 
the imaginative denominated a high hill ; with un- 
bounded privileges of contemplating a free country on 
every side ; the air whereof is hourly distilling' health- 
ful breezes, inviting birds of song ; and, cooperating 
with the visible sun, ripening roses up — and urging 
fruit trees into beauty and sweetness. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 67 

With rejoicing, being now freed from that solicitude 
which is natural to strangers when unravelling the wnjs 
of Notsob, the narrator participated in the tranquil pros- 
perity and hospitalities of his friend Jeremiah. There 
was music there ; and there were songs and games; and 
best of all, there were transformations wonderful. 

The tricky game (always delightful to a Diakka!) 
consisted in deceiving the five senses and muddling the 
judgment of the very elect ! The spiritual test trick 
was mysteriously causing small articles such as rings 
and knives to appear when and where the bewildered 
witnesses declared positively they were not and could not 
be, " by any known law of possibility.' 5 

The sweet music of the great masters was also seem- 
ingly interpreted in the dark on the piano by the gifted 
invisible fingers of the narrator's dimpled-f aced wife. 

For a moment silence ensued. Then she suddenly 
retired from the presence of the guests. Presently a 
mysterious knocking was heard without ! — at that hour 
of the night! According to ancient custom, the pro- 
prietor hastened to the place and freely opened his door 
to the stranger ! The medium said " give her welcome." 
The medium then described and said : " Stranger ap- 
pears to be a female antiquity from some haunted habi- 
tation." 

Now it is impossible to describe the scene that im- 
mediately ensued. It was a case of materialization! 
The antique spirit visitor was by every one recognized. 
She was a profound curiosity in both her dress and ad- 
dress. Insomuch was this eccentricity true, that had 



68 THE DIAKKA AND THEIR VICTIMS. 

she been seen at ancient Jerusalem, or at the gates of 
Babylon of old, the people would have gathered by 
millions about her, and each spectator would vociferate 
upon the honor of his oath that he was about to lose his 
life from excess of wonderment and laughter. 

After she, (my dimpled-faeed one !) had entertained 
the pleasant company with her spontaneous materializa- 
tions, and had supplied them with innocent inventions 
and stories, peculiar to the age of candlesticks and 
hand-looms, she immediately dropped her antiquated 
appearance, and straightway prepared to depart for her 
• home — no more among the Diakka ! The next moment 
the talented medium left the apartment at the opposite 
end of the room; then, just for a moment, every one 
present seemed to doubt what had happened ; and two 
said it was the medium, and not a spirit, who had en- 
tertained them all with the trick of fleeting materiality 
and transformation ! 

Such perplexity of the five bodily senses, begetting 
eccentricities of feelings and muddling up the reason- 
ings of vain and high-prided minds, supply the Diakka 
with a large measure of their pastime. 

Here ends the story of the personage introduced to 
the author by James Victor Wilson. 



REMARKABLE EFFECTS OF THE DIAKKA UPON THE 
PASSIVE AND SUSCEPTIBLE. 



The f ollowingletter, which is submitted as evidence that 
Vx such spirits as Diakka exist and affect mankind, teaches 

the lesson, so much needed in these days, that the state 
^of mediumship, unless orderly and wisely regulated by 

the person possessing it, is attended with peculiar trials 

v and painful annoyances : 

Newport, July 10th, 1873. 

Mr. A. J. Davis — Dear and kind instructor : Please 
to pardon an old man sixty-nine years of age. for taking 
this liberty to ask you one question. 

On the 18th of January, 1872, at one of Lizzie Keiz- 
er's private seances, the spirits took possession of me 
n physically, as though I was an infant, swinging my hand 
and arms about with great velocity, and using my hand 
for writing anything they wished to ask or say, and thus 
making a conscious physical medium of me. I am not 
in the least trance or visionary that I know of. Con- 
stantly since, I have been visited both night and day by 
" x an endless number of spirits, male and female. 

I received them kindly till I became almost bewil- 
dered to know how to accommodate them or stop them 
from coming. The spirits took possession of my sleep- 
ing hours. They had spread the news amongst their 
associates that they " had found out a medium easily 



70 THE DIAXyKA 

controlled and kindly disposed — a man who would 
write with a lead pencil on writing paper," etc. I 
prayed earnestly for powerful spirits to assist me in re- 
pelling at least a portion of the number. Single spirits 
"volunteered at times and helped me to repel. But the 
others returned as quick as the purified spirits retired ; 
so that the effort w r as of little use. The loss of sleep 
soon became alarming to me. My visitors kept increas- 
ing. But I wish you to understand that they, the spirits, 
"Mvere all friendly ones. They showed no sign of wilful 
annoyance. I pleaded with them for rest, physical and 
mental ; but the visiting fever ran high. They seemed 
to think that if they missed this chance they might not 
have another. 

I did not know what to do. I had no one to instruct 
me, and I did not remember airvthing in j^our waitings 
to aid me. I prayed to the God of Gods for immediate 
help, and w r as "impressed" that I had all the help I 
needed if I w^ould make use of it. I hesitated, and 
thought " w T hat can I do ? " A great many of the spirits 
were uneducated and impulsive. The} 7 did not like to 
be repelled in an abrupt manner. So I commenced thus : 

;< Have you, when in Earth life, heard tell of mad dogs 
biting people w T ho afterwards went mad in dreadful 
spasms, convulsions, and horrible agonies before they 
died ? " answer, " Yes." " You will be in the same con- 
dition in fifteen seconds, if you do not retire immediately ! 
"Will you go?" answer, u No." You had better go! 
Be subject to moral suasion this time, won't you?" 
answer, u No." " You have left your own spirit home 
and have invaded my peaceful home. Do you think 
that is right ? " answer, " No." " Then you wish to re- 
tain the power to visit me as often as it may please your 
fancy, even in the dead hours of night?" answer, 
" Yes." 

Thus the tormentors would reply to my questions. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 71 

I have prayed for some protective influence. And I 
have been put in possession of a most tremendous 
power. But my sufferings are too horrible to think of 
— yes, Hydrophobia! The spirits dared me to make 
use of my boasted power ; then in 5, 10, or 15 seconds 
\the horrible calamity will come upon me like a flash of 
Mightning, and no tongue can tell my misery and suffer- 
ing. At first the spirits commence to plunge and jerk. 
I bid them disconnect from close rapport and stand two 
feet from me till I bid them take possession again. 
But they keep up the same motion. Again I bid them 
to be still; to stop their painful personal motions. 
Then, perchance, they become quiet. I say to them: 
" Will you give me security that you trouble me no 
more." If they say, "No," I plunge them with my 
\power into the same state again for about one minute. 
\If they continue to be stubborn, I double my power 
\every 5 or 10 seconds. One of them soon takes pos- 
session of my hand, begging to be released, and taking 
\an oath that he will trouble me no more. I tell him if 
he breaks his oath the same amount of suffering will 
fall upon him like a flash of lightning. The moment 
he approaches and touches me again, I say to him — " I 
am a servant and agent of God. He holds the power. 
'Tis he that sets you free. You have trampled upon his 
sacred gifts. — Do so no more. And when you become 
a purified spirit pay me a visit and I will receive you as 
a kind brother. Farewell, till then." 

This is the way I receive communications : I take a 
smooth board 8 feet long, 12 inches wide, put it on my 
lap, lay my right hand upon it, and call for a spirit by 
name. In a few seconds one takes possession, sliding 
my hand backward and forward. I say, " take this 
alphabet, shake my hand for ' Yes,' and slide it on the 
"board about 8 inches for ' No ' — make two motions for 
' I don't know.' Do you understand them % Only 



72 THE DIAKKA 

three simple signs ! " He replies, " O, yes." The rest 
comes in writing. 

These strange visitors take possession of me in bed, 

in the street, and while at my work. They give the 

above signs on the bed, in the atmosphere, anywhere. 

"■ The spirits say their suffering is indescribably severe ! 

The question — is it (their suffering) real or imaginary? 
If some trifling Table-tippers should put them in the 
above condition and leave them, how long would they 
be in that state of suffering 2 I am well acquainted 
with the process of magnetizing. I have read your 
" Pandemonium" * I thought it a cruel thing; to leave 
a poor spirit in such a state of suffering for a month, 
week, day, an hour, or even for 5 minutes. To me it 
seems to be real suffering ; not a psychological con- 
dition. And this makes me fearful lest some earthly 
malicious person may take advantage of some poor de- 
fenceless spirit for past quarrels, etc. 

I am a teetotaler. No liquor, beer, wdne, or cider ; 
neither do I touch tea* or coffee. Sugar and water is 
my drink. Do not think me " Insane." I never was . 
more clear on mental subjects than at this present time 
in all my life. But repelling and punishing spirits is 
\so new and so strange that I am tilled with fear ! I 
need advice from some one like yourself. 

Joseph S. 

P.S. I am well acquainted with the Galyanic bat- 
tery, the Electro-magnetic machines, etc. ^understand 
you to teach the spirits are not always absolutely present 
when communicating. But that fact does not affect the 
question concerning th^ir disposition and punishment. 
I write thus to let you know that a very short answer, 
a few words, will be all that I may need : I stand upon 

* See the author's volume " Spirit Mysteries Explained," new. 
edition, containing a chapter, "Revelation for Pandemonium. v : 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 73 

the precipice, very nigh the Border line, between the 
two states of existence, and am certain soon to pass 
away. I am well-known in Newport as an A. J. Davis 
scholar. "Ruined!" say Old Orthodox professors. 
But I leave them to the enjoyment of their own foolish 
fossilized notions, ever and anon giving them a few new 
thoughts to reflect upon. You will perceive that my 
nerves are steady, not tremulous, which is common with 
one of my age, 69 years. Make what use of this letter 
you see will be for the best. 'Tis the last question I 
shall ever trouble you with. 

Please do not forget to send me a few words, in some 
leisure moment, before I pass away. 

Yours, etc., J. S. 



DIAKKA MATERIALIZING THEMSELVES. 

At Moravia, N". Y., in Stratford, Ct., many years 

since, in New England, in every important dark circle 

held in Europe and America, the wonderful tricks of 

\Diakka are fully manifested in what has been recently 

\styled " Materialization." A correspondent submits the 

following slight alteration of a reporter's sketch of 

Gypsies as a correct picture of what his son, a clairvoy- 

\ant, witnessed when viewing the Summerland country 

of the Diakka : 

"Lying around in shady spots were a number of 
young and rather pretty women, all of them appearing 
to be slightly tanned , all of them vvith dark eyes full of 
fire, and dark hair flowing in wild, clustering ringlets 
over their shoulders. Some of them were bare-headed, 
others wore fantastic hats with what appeared like an 
4 



74: THE DTAKKA 

abundance of gaudy ribbons. They were well dressed, 
with bright sashes across their shoulders, wearing no shoes 
or stockings. A few tall, powerful men lounged among 
the trees and stretched themselves upon the grass. 
They were so similar in appearance that they might 
have been taken for the children of the same parents. 
They had dark, shaggy, unkempt hair, full, bushy 
beards, aquiline noses, and immense cheek bones. They 
were dressed like ordinary workingmen, but wore no 
coats. A multitude of children of all ages, from three 
months to sixteen, all as thinly clad as possible, and 
bare-legged, ran about at perfect liberty. With the ex- 
ception of two or three the young were all rough, 
sturdy, frolicsome vagabonds, with the flashing devil 
in their eyes." 



THE IMAGE OF AN OLD LADY DIAKKA. 

At Moravia, recently, an apparitional woman ap- 
\peared, dressed in a homely, substantial fashion. " She 
was tall and muscular in spite of her age, which must 
have been close on fourscore. Her face was long and 
thin, tawny as a mulatto's, and adorned with high cheek 
bones, and a nose like an eagle's beak. The eyes were 
black and flashing, and long gray ringlets hung down 
upon her shoulders." 

Such representations are nothing but artistic fabrica- 
tions by skilful Diakka. No intelligent investigator 
should accept these as literal facts. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 75 



\DIAKKA APPEARING TO REV. T. L. HARRIS. 

In his appendix to " The Arcana of Christianity," Mr. 
Harris describes with more or less extravagance of lan- 
guage natural to himself, a succession of besetments 
arising from intellectual tempters. One of these he 
reports (see p. 50) as saying : 

"I am a great poet. I sometimes think that the 

Universe was made by three Gods — the first was a poet, 

the second a sculptor, and the third a painter. The 

sculptor f ashioned the forms, the painter tinged them, 

and the poet animated them. The old Hebrew prophets 

were pretty fair poets, Isaiah especially, but I am far 

superior. Yet what good does it do me now ? Why, 

\sir, there are many spirits here who rip out a huge oath, 

N and it bursts like a bombshell before their eyes, and 

^scatters a rain of living snakes. There are others, they 

were murderers, — when they quarrel, knives dart from 

•Mheir breasts. Sometimes their thoughts change into 

twinged centipedes. I have a mind to write in the style 

of Ovid. I think that a book entitled the " Metamor- 

^phoses of Pandemonium " would sell in your world. 

Think of a woman's words changing into buzzing hor- 

^nets as she speaks. Why, I kissed a woman the other 

^day, and a red-hot adder sprang from her open mouth. 

The cream of the joke is that our sphere looks brilliant, 

fascinating, and summery, except when we sink into our 

interiors. At other times our phantasies and lusts 

x appear in images which correspond to fine clothes and 

splendid palaces. It is no joke for a devil to eat his 

Vo.wn words : he has to swallow a peck of scorpions and 

N vipers, which is not, as you may well imagine, a very 

appetizing diet. Think of a ragout of a stewed false- 

X hood ! That cursed law of correspondences ! I am a 



76 THE DIAKKA AND THEIR VICTIMS. 

plain man myself, and should like once more to inhabit 
a snug parsonage, and have now and then a quiet little 
dinner, plenty of old port, and after it, a round game. 
I'll tell you why I disguise myself. It is because I hate 
to be called a parson. ' Ha ! ha ! dean,' a drunken 
scoundrel will say now and then, 'let's drink together 
to the good old times.' Here he commenced snatches of 
songs, as from an inexhaustible fountain of supply, and 
passing from one to another with scarcely a moment's 
interval." 

Very much of the foregoing report, especially the 
peculiar semi-Swedenborgian style, should be attributed 
to Mr. Harris himself, who was highly gifted in hyper- 
bole of expression. Many Diakka, too, are given to 
extravagant and purely romantic accounts of their situa- 
tions, pursuits, and feelings. They tell big stories, even 
at their own expense, just to see persons stand, and stare, 
and wonder. 



TRICKS UPON THE PROPENSITIES OF MEDIUMS. 



The Diakka delight themselves with flattering medi- 
ums, and more especially in making magnificent prom- 
ises to fortune-seekers, who, prompted by the evils of 
their selfishness, interrogate mediums for private gain. 
> Benevolent persons become inflated with amazing plans 
for the universal redemption of mankind. Vain-minded 
investigators receive most gorgeous promises of great 
^future personal prominence ; for which, instigated by 
the Diakka who may be a private friend of the medi- 
x um, the investigator will pay a large money fee. Some 
of these amazing promises are accompanied with the 
>most satisfactory evidences of spiritual intercourse. 

PLAYING WITH THE PASSIONS AND APPETITES. 

Diakka know when they have a susceptible subject in 

the medium. They delight in pretending great suffer- 

r ing in consequence of some ungratified passion, taste, or 

Yhabit, for which they were noted before death. They 

impress the medium, and, if possible, the well-meaning, 

yet not over-intelligent investigator, that they would be 

7 elevated and made happy if only they could partake of 



78 THE DIAKKA 

V whiskey or tobacco, or gratify their burning free-love pro- 
pensities. All such requests and suggestions on the 
part of Diakka should be regarded as no compliment to 
the actual disposition of the medium, and be repelled 
as a too certain reflection of the proclivity of the inves- 
tigator. As for the spirits ! With them (being unprin- 

\cipled intellectualists, and in all the fine sentiments 
wholly undeveloped) the play is nothing but the mere 
. pastime amusement at the expense of those beneath 
their influence. 



THE TRICK OF PREACHING RE-INCARNATION. 

Probably, in the entire range of modern spiritual spec- 
ulations, no more philosophically romantic farce than 
/, the sweet boon of being " re-incarnated " was ever 
< played upon human imagination by the sportive Diakka. 
They puzzle spiritual philosophers by a mixture of 
alarming doubts about immortality. The endless prog- 
ress of the soul (say they), will end in an abyss of con- 
glomerated annihilation. They want you returned a 
few times to round you up, full-orbed, in the niches of 
personal experience, in every possible phase of being. 
You say " Yes." Diakka immediately give you oracu- 
Mar teachings in rhyme and prose. So they amuse them- 
selves, and your seriousness in their sophistries greatly 
enhances their mirth. These trifling freebooters of the 
\ wilderness never molest persons whose minds are well- 
-balanced on any subject. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 79 



THE MORAL OF IMMORALITIES. 



There are some valuable lessons, in conclusion, to be 
learned from the coarseness, ignorance, selfishness, and 
moral insensibility of the Diakka. 

It is this : They were once human beings, once sons 
and daughters of human parents, once boys and girls 
in human homes, once men and women living, eating, 
sleeping, working, fretting, and moving about on earth 
like ourselves. They, therefore, touch and taste and 
illustrate whatsoever is tender and frail and imperfect, 
in genuine humanity. They died as we shall, and, be- 
fore us, they entered the celestial community. But 
they return ! Thej^ seem to be mingled with crime ? 
*with domestic tragedies, with large pretensions and de- 
Xception. Whence their origin ? They are derived from 
private families in every tribe and nation under the 
x sun. Men and women make Diakka, and then they 
x molest men and women — " chickens coming home to 
^ roost" — imperfect, material, and shallow-minded spirits, 
Y- returning to reciprocate with their producing causes. 
Men's bad and brutal passions come out in their chil- 
dren. These children, both before and after death, 
shower back from the Wilderness of the Diakka the 
effects upon susceptible persons, indiscriminately, the 
"^innocent and the guilty suffering alike all disasters and 
all penalties of ignorance and injustice. What timid 
investigators in Spiritualism are shocked at — the false 
and the disgusting among mediums — might, with more 



80 THE DIAKKA 

justice, arouse their attention to the cardinal immorali- 
ties in society which generate what they abhor. 

THE TRICK OF APPEARING IN TWO OR MORE PLACES AT 
THE SAME MOMENT. 

\ Unprincipled Diakka take a gypsy-like pleasure in 

travelling with stealthy celerity from place to place, 

from circle to circle, and from medium to medium, 

i- passing themselves off under assumed great names, and 

by means of impartations in close imitation of the 

minds they delight to misrepresent. Identification, 

-therefore, at a spirit circle, is, in the present stage of 

>our development, almost impossible. One day your 

> real friend or relative will communicate; next time 

you meet the medium, perchance, the fun-loving^ Diakka 

Xwill simulate your friend's character and do all the 

honors. 

FACES AND FORMS MANUFACTURED BY SPIRIT ARTISTS. 

Diakka are perfect in all sleight-of-hand perform- 
ances; and in the representation of hands, flowers, 
faces, spectacles, old ladies' caps, hats, boots and spurs, 
wild Indians, etc., they are perfect, from their extensive 
knowledge, and complete manipulatory control over, 
Mhe subtlest elements and atoms and laws of exterior 
chemistry. In circles for " materialization," as the 
term is for these artful effects, the Diakka (some of 
whom are Indians of every nationality) combine and 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 81 

play "fantastic tricks" for the entertainment of the 
credulous and susceptible. 

But it is not to be inferred from the foregoing that 

all the " creations of art " are false to their original ; 

on the contrary, most of these materializations by the 

Diakka (great masters of the " Black Art " !) are 

genuine representations of men and women actually 

living in the Summerland ; or, more properly, by special 

request, the Black Artists (if I may so term the 

^Diakka) gather up chemically and represent literally 

^ the face, form, expression, and even in detail, the style 

>~ of clothing, by which the person was commonly known 

y and recognized before death. 

In confirmation of these statements I submit as tes- 
timony the following : 



THE SYSTEMATIC APPEARANCE OF SPIRITS. 

Full accounts were recently published in these pages # 
of the systematic appearance by spirits in a good light, 
to many persons at the same time at the seances of Mrs. 
Andrews, of Moravia, New York State, U. S. Soon 
afterwards, some of our London mediums began to sit 
for the same kind of manifestations with more or less 
success, the most remarkable results being obtained 
\ through the mediumship of Miss Florence Cook, with 
Xthe circumstance that the first face which appeared, 

* This account is taken from the Spiritualist, Sept. 12, 1872, 
published in London, England. 
4* 



82 THE DIAKKA 

and which called itself " Katie King," was much like 
fy her own, to her great annoyance. Dr. Purdon, of San- 
down, like many inexperienced in Spiritualism, tried to 
impose his own conditions on the manifestations, failure 
and the weakening of Miss Cook's mediumship being 
the results. After her return home, by giving the 
spirits their own conditions, her mediumship gradually 
grew strong again. The spirit Katie said she could 
not help being like her medium, but she obligingly, on 
several occasions, put her head out of the cabinet as 
black as ink, sometimes chocolate color, and sometimes 
X white. Miss Cook sits in a cabinet now ; it is a tall 
narrow cupboard, with an opening in it a foot square, 
high tip near the ceiling. She sits sideways in a chair, 
as the cupboard is not deep enough for her to sit facing 
the door. In the darkness of this cupboard, to which 
there is no entrance but through the front doors, the 
K spirits manufacture the faces, and when ready, put them 
out through the opening into the light and talk to the 
observers. 

Gradually they have increased the test conditions 
under which they do this. They now begin by lacing 
and tying the medium most firmly with rope, especially 
about the wrists and hands ; then they ask one of the 
observers to enter and seal the knots with wax. They 
say that soon they shall be able to let the spectators do 
the tying as well as the sealing. Under the present 
conditions living faces of different color have been 
shown at the opening, but last Saturday faces not like 
that of the medium began to appear. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 83 

In the room outside a strong paraffin light is used, 

with a polished tin surface behind, throwing the rays 

directly upon the faces, which can now stand a far 

X stronger light than they did at first, though it pains 

them. 

Last Saturday week the first good view was obtained 
of a fresh spirit face ; the upper part was a little like 
that of the medium; the under part was half as big 
again. Mrs. Cook and her sister, who were told to go 
close up to the cabinet and examine it, recognized it as 
.their mother, and the spirit called attention to a black 
.^silk cap it had on, as worn by Mrs. Cook's mother be- 
fore her death. 

Last Thursday Katie showed herself while the me- 
dium was tied up and sealed ; afterwards a Fellow of 
the Royal Society took about seven or ten minutes to 
untie her and set her free ; later in the evening another 
face appeared in a good light ; it had a painful expres- 
sion of countenance, and some of its front teeth were 
missing, whilst others were disarranged ; the spirit was 
not recognized by anybody present. 

The position of the observers outside the cabinet 
influences the manifestations ; the spirits arrange the 
order in which they sit, and singing is demanded of all 
the members of the circle at particular stages of the 
manifestations. The paraffin lamp consists of two con- 
centric cylinders, with a large opening in each. One 
of the cylinders can be turned by hand, so that when 
the two openings face each other a strong light is thrown 
on the faces. Thus, by turning one of the cylinders, a 



84: THE DIAKKA 

strong light, weak light, or total darkness can be ob- 
tained .expeditiously at will. 

The splendid results thus obtained ii^ the way of 
spirit faces are due to the compliance by experienced 
Spiritualists with those conditions which have been 
found to most favor the manifestations. J3P The spirits 
say they manufacture the faces more or less perfectly 
and that the life in them is derived from the medium, 
\who is usually in a deep trance all the time. The sides, 
\ tops, and backs of the heads are covered with white 
bandages. The heads have been felt, but onty in total 
\darkness at present; in some cases they have been hpl- 
\low at the back, just like a wax doll with the back of 
its head pushed in. They are all living faces, with 
sparkling eyes and mobile features. When the power 
Xis weak the eyes are more fixed than at other times, and 
x the spirits say they cannot then see out of them. "When a 
\A spirit shows itself for the first time thus, ft has more diffi- 
culty in talking than when it has had experience in the 
work. At first, their attempts to speak result in choking 
sounds, and a few words may be brought out with diffi- 
culty. They can usually bear the light from two to 
four minutes. Katie can usually bear the light well, 
and chat away saucily ; she says that the light pains her, 
and that the gaze of the observers hurts her still more. 
> " Your eyes act on me like burning-glasses," she said. 
Little Edith Cook, aged three or four years, much 
strengthens these manifestations by sitting near the cabi- 
net, outside. The spirits say they get more power from 
her than from the other outside members of the circle. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 85 



ARTFUL MATERIALIZATION IN A LONDON CIRCLE. 

From the " Daybreak " the following additional testi- 
mony is submitted : 

Dear Sir, — Last Friday I had the privilege of being 
present, with eight others, at the reception of Mr. 
Heme for an evening seance at my brother's, Mr. 
Thomas Dixon, 76 Hampstead Road. Our meeting was 
not for purposes of an experimental kind, but solely for 
the purpose of enabling some members of the family to 
witness, if possible, the tangible presence of a spirit, to 
whom such presence would remain otherwise unwit- 
nessed. We therefore declined Mr. Heme's invitation 
to apply ligatures, not regarding mechanical manifesta- 
tions, but looking forward to those evidences of spiritual 
presence so remarkable in their fourfold character of 
visibility, tangibility, audibility, and mentality. So, 
having carefully excluded the light of our lamp, from 
an extemporized cabinet, formed by the doorway of a 
small back room, we ensconced Mr. Heme within it in 
an easy chair, and awaited phenomena, while some of our 
young folks, by singing, completed our condition of har- 
mony. We had prepared ourselves not to receive much, 
for the medium had late in the afternoon given a cabi- 
net seance with the object of enabling Mr. Burns to 
lecture with experimental knowledge on the subject of 
spirit-faces, and w T hich seance naturally enfeebled the 
power for the present one. But our singing had not 
gone far w^hen the phenomena we hoped for began to 
present themselves. The corner of the upper division 
of our cabinet screen was raised, and there appeared the 
head and bust of a man, who spoke in the well-known 
voice of " Peter ; " he addressed those present by name, 
taking most and particular notice of the host, whom he 



86 THE DIAKKA 

addressed as "Quartermaster" and "Tom," entering 
freely into conversation with him, and calling him to 
the cabinet, gave him his hand, took off his cap, and 
put on as a head-covering a ladies' cap-bag he 
found in the cabinet. The arm, being stretched out 
from the opening, then pulled the host's coat off easily 
and gently, and then, coming through or under the 
lower curtain, pulled off his boot, a high Wellington 
reaching above the knee. " Peter " then retired to 
make way for " John King," who spoke very audibly, 
and showed his face very distinctly to those nearest him 
by subdued candle-light, not by any light of or from 
himself. The host, at his request, felt his hand and 
beard, as also did one or two others of the party. 
" Peter " then reappeared, holding up the curtain for 
" Katy " to show herself. Some one said, " Look at 
Katy's arm," when " Peter " shouted, " No, the arm is 
mine ! " while " Katy " exhibited herself very beauti- 
fully and distinctly, and whispered her recognitions. 
On "Katy's" leaving, " Peter" asked the host to give 
him a piece of his beard to make a ring, of, and with 
his permission cut off two pieces — " one for each side of 
the ring " — which he said he would make and wear in 
remembrance of him. I heard scissors snipping the 
hair, and " Peter " said they were his own, and did not 
cut material hair so easily as material scissors would. 
During the seance he said he " must go away for a bit 
to Chumley Penner's, and break a table for them," when 
Mr. Heme said Williams was not there, but at Brixton ; 
but " Peter" said, " You know nothing about it ; he is 
x at Chumley Penner's," which has since been found to 
be correct. " Peter," among other things, bit the host's 
finger hard enough to leave the mark for some hours. 
N *He said he did this to let him feel that he could mate- 
>u*ialize his teeth. We all saw, heard, felt, and had men- 
tal correspondence with three spiritual individuals of 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 87 

distinctive appearance and dress, and palpably distinct 
beings, and all were much pleased at this introduction 
to Mr. Heme and his generally invisible friend. 
Your obedient servant, 

H. Dixon. 

112 Albany Street, London, Eng., December 11, 1872. 

REMARKS ON THE QUESTION " WHAT GOOD % " 

In developing the questions of " What's the use ? " 
and " What's the good % " of these Diakka and the gen- 
uine literal manifestations, I cannot better meet the 
minds of the general reader than by giving the sensible 
words of a sensible man : Long, long ago (he says), 
I made up my mind that the phenomenon commonly 
called " Spiritualism," is just exactly what it purports to 
be — the work of what was once a human being living 
upon this earth in the condition in which human beings 
-live after their state has ended. 

I have come to this conclusion from knowledge de- 
rived from two sources — first, the evidence of many 
people of undoubted veracity; second, from the evi- 
dence of my own senses at times when I have been in 
as perfect possession of them as at any other times in 
my whole life. I have seen, heard, and felt them 
again and again — not only in the evening, but in open 
daylight; not only at the rooms of mediums where 
some machinery might possibly have been so ingeni- 
ously arranged that I could not discover it, but in my 
own house where I fcnovj there was none. 



88 THE DIAKKA 

Any other fact, except one relating to the ability of 
the spirits of the dead, would be considered amply 
proven , on less positive evidence than there is of this ; 
and any jury would convict a man of murder — and 
have often done so — on much less positive evidence. 
The day is past when any man of sound reason, who 
will take the trouble to investigate to a moderate extent, 
can rationally deny its truth. 

Starting with these premises, of which I am sure 
that you have had evidence enough to admit, let us ask 
concerning it,Qui bono f ■ Now if there is any truth in 
Swedenborg's statements, and I think a careful study 
will convince us there is much, or if we can draw cor- 
rect inferences from our experience, we cannot escape 
^from the conclusion " that dead men are no better than 
■* living ones ; " that men truthful in this life will be 
truthful in that ; or, in the words of the New Testa- 
ment, " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still," etc. 
(see last chap. Revelations), and those that were un- 
truthful in this life will be the same in the future. 
Death does not change the character of man, but simply 
strips off his masks and compels him to stand forth as 
he is, and he becomes after death the image of his own 
character. 

Now, reasoning from this, we must conclude that 
if we receive a communication from the spirit of one 
whom we have known in this life to be truthful and 
reliable, we may depend upon what such a spirit tells 
us. From one known as a liar here, we can only ex- 
pect lies. Hence it becomes necessary for us to devise 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 89 

a means of knowing that the spirits who communicate 
are the persons whom they purport to be. Paul ad- 
vised his hearers to prove the spirits- — that is, to test 
them or their identity. There are many instances in 
the Bible where " lying spirits " entered into the 

^mouths of prophets and deceived the people. The 
whole Bible is simply an account of past spirit-com- 
munications, and is without doubt a truthful one. 
When it is stripped of the coloring and erroneous 
translations, the work of bigoted theologians to sustain 
their long; cherished errors, it will show cl earl v that it 

Ms a record of the spirit-communications of the past, 
with their bearings upon the affairs of men. 

SPIRITUALISM CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO RELIGION. 

The author's remarks at a recent Anniversary meet- 
ing are here in order. 

Concerning the dispensation of spiritual things: I 
rejoice in this opportunity to celebrate the inauguration 
of a universal agitation, which is emphatically the im- 
port and mission of Spiritualism. Spiritual Manifesta- 
tions are a demonstration that man, with respect to his 
dignity and destiny, is pre-eminently and forever supe- 
rior to the animals and vegetables about him. The 
essence of that prophecy contained in " Nature's Divine 
Revelations," was that this living demonstration would 
re-vive and re-state one of the great principles of the 
natural religion of the universe — namely, the immor- 
tality of individual man ! Consequently I am not here 



90 THE DIAKKA 

to celebrate a religion first born twenty-five years ago. 
Spiritualism, taken at its best, is a " living demonstra* 
■* tion " of man's eternal continuation. Mankind naturally 
rejoices in that sublime assurance, because however de- 
pressed and gross and imperfect a man or a woman may 
be, the sweet conviction of such an exalted and endless 
destiny will exalt the heart to a feeling of capability 
and dignity, and at last result in perfect redemption. 

I came here to-day to rejoice with you because twenty- 
five years ago the modern trumpet first sounded in 
human ears, because then the bells of a new life were 
rung, and because the rapping manifestations of a spirit 
existence came plainly out to the senses of investigating 
man. But I did not come here to-day to rejoice over 
the birth of a new religion. I believe in the reign of 
eternal ideas ! and I do not believe in the deification of 
• physical manifestations. Personal immortality, proven, 
is but a single element in the great principle of natural 
religion. And this distinction is the difference which 
> has always existed between Harmonial Philosophers 
and those who pride themselves on being called Spirit- 
ualists. 

Some four years ago, in a small volume, I announced 
the fact that we, Spiritualists, had a long series of 
abuses charged against us by our departed friends be- 
cause they had not been approached with respect, nor 
treated with grateful consideration when they came ; 
and because, also, the good things which they said and 
did had not taken root within us, which is the only true 
foundation of spiritual growth among mankind. So 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 91 

believing, I have never attended what are called " Pub- 
lic Exhibitions of Spirit Power." Neither have I ever 
published a protest, nor have I ever verbally uttered 
one ; and I do not now propose to do so. I have, per- 
sonally, seldom sat at such tables and partaken of such 
viands. Now you say " that is because you have other 
things to eat." Well, I do not deny " I have meat that 
you know not of." But it is just that wholesome species 
of meat which any honest investigating man and woman 
can have — the meat of Reason and Truth. The effect of 
that publication ( u The Fountain") issued four years ago, 
was to excite a false sound all through our ranks that 
" Brother Davis had recanted ! " My recantation con- 
sisted, simply, in a wholesome " caution," nothing more. 
And now I notice through the public press that these 
spiritual " counterfeiters " have recently been very in- 
dustrious. I have long entertained the conviction that 
many manifestations, such as tying and untying ropes, 
taking off vests without removing the coat, removing a 
knife out of a gentleman's pocket and mysteriously 
putting it in a lady's lap, etc., are essentially nothing 
but ingenious and nefarious deeds of sleight-of-hand; 
no matter whether such tricks be done by some skilful 
legerdemain performer living in New York or in 
^another world. You do not touch my veneration when 
you say to me with reference to such manifestations, " Sir, 
that was spiritual, and not human." I behold spirits all 
>• about me — these men and women here — and I always 
venerate true human nature. It adds nothing to a per- 
son's excellence because he happens to live in the 



92 THE DIAKKA AND THEIR VICTIMS. 

parlor ; neither does it necessarily exalt a person — at. 
least not in my esteem — to tell me that he now resides 

•-, in the Spiritual world. I live in New York, which is 
situated somewhere between Hell Gate and the Elysian 
Fields. (Laughter.) I am willing to call it "purga- 
tory," and yet I meet meii and women here who touch 
my veneration, to whom I am fraternally attached. I 
love New York City, with its Central Park and with 
its other great central enterprises. In like manner I 
love certain portions and enterprises of our Summer- 
land. You add nothing to my religious nature by say- 
ing, " Sir, the Davenport Brothers did not themselves 
perform the trick." By this you mean to say, " The 
trick was done by attendant spirits for them." Now 
what I say is this : I want no such manifestations to 

y> form the basis of my religion. And I say to you, ladies 
and gentlemen, that so long as you continue in these 
trifling facts, so long will you be entitled to receive from 
seventy-five to eighty per cent, of psychological and 
wilful deception. Do you suppose that a dispensation 
of "living demonstrations" which men call " Spiritual- 
ism " is an essential part of the foundation of true re- 
ligion ? Certainly not ; no more than the ringing of a 
good strong bell is an essential part of your dinner. 
Men, working in the shop and field, gladly hear the 
welcoming sound of the bell about one o'clock ! Gen- 
erally it is rung by a stout and healthily incarnated girl. 
To ma, it is no more wonderful that a man lives after 

y^ death than that he lives after his birth. 



THE INFLUENCE AND STATISTICS OF SPIRIT- 
UALISM. 



An event in, human affairs, measured by the flight of 
time, is but a minute point of light shining into the 
world of darkness. But the imperishable inmost spirit, 
measured by the innumerable number of sensations and 
ideas which it may experience and manifest, is nothing 
less than a revelation of the hallowed harmonies of the 
universe. By various instrumentalities, however, an 
event, beginning as a -prophetic star in the black sky of 
ignorance, may be absorbed and assimilated by the life 
of humanity, and multiplied and expanded and diversi- 
fied by various individuals, until it shines forth as the 
full-orbed sun of righteousness with healing in its in- 
finitely extended and lovingly brooding wings. 

Spiritualism, measured by its modern history, com- 
menced in the very bosom of poverty and obscurity— a 
point of light shining into the abounding gloom of 
materialism. Twenty-four years ago this day, in the 
Empire State which holds the metropolis of the Conti- 
nent, a sound, breathing the approach of " a new 
heaven and a new earth," floated down from multitudes 
gathered upon the resounding shores of the Summer- 



94 THE DIAKKA 

land. * And to-day we meet to commemorate that 
event, and to review briefly those developments which, 
unceasingly flowing and expanding from that point 
throughout the civilized races, have destroyed both death 
and hell, and brought immortality to light. 

First j then, as to its Origin. Spiritualism is founded 
upon the spiritual constitution of man. It is as natural 
to the essence of his imperishable inmost as materialism 
is natural to the instincts of his destructible physical 
organization. The unceasing recurrence of the phe- 
nomena of death in the universe of organs and bodies 
is complemented in the world of essences and spirits by 
the perpetual manifestations of limitless and deathless 
powers. Hence, strictly speaking, the history of Spirit- 
ualism is coeval with the life of humanity. Manifes- 
tations of spirit commenced with the birth of mankind, 
at which time also commenced the human fear of death. 

But now we commemorate the origin of the modern 
revival, after a comparative sleep of such phenomena, 
following the law of tides in flooding and ebbing through 
the world, and thus we begin with the external fact. 
By way of definition, Spiritualism may be seen as — 

1st, A demonstration of a spiritual constitution within 
man's body. 

2d, A demonstration that this organized spiritual man 
triumphs over the death of the body. 
, 3d, A demonstration that he can re-visit the earth and 
bring testimonies to mankind. 

* This discourse was delivered by the author on the occasion of 
the twenty-fourth Anniversary of Spiritualism. 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 95 

Tims estimated, we assemble to unite our thanksgiv- 
ings, and to mingle our benedictions over one of the most 
memorable and illustrious events possible to the entire 
life of mankind. It is nothing less than a demonstration 
^to the materialized senses of another universe, with its 
loftier harmonies and limitless possibilities freely opened 
to each individual soul ! 

Four and twenty years, through every conceivable 
agency, this demonstration has been constructing a 
ladder of thought and affection — a means of ascent and 
descent between the world of things and the realm of 
eternal life. Looking through the lens of time, we 
behold bright messengers of love from the Summer- 
land, bearing the torch of philosophic truth, marching 
through the habitations of men, pouring a new light over 
science, developing into usefulness and beauty, intellect- 
ual and moral powers till then sleeping in many honest 
souls, victoriously attacking the strongholds of oppres- 
sion, overcoming pride and ignorance in high stations, 
and crowning and filling the whole humanity with joys 
unspeakable and full of glory. 

Yet the great outside world is only vexed and per- 
turbed by this uncontrollable demonstration. Although 
hundreds of thousands, yea, millions upon millions 
of minds have been reached and influenced, yet the 
present aspect of the movement is far from satisfac- 
tory. 

Second, then, as to its Influence. In surveying the 
field, in all candor I am enabled to number the great 
multitude of four millions of persons interested in, but 



96 THE DIAKKA 

not yet liberalized by, modern Spiritualism. These 
minds are both 'within and without church organiza- 
tions. With these the initial phenomena have not been 
excelled, nor yet sufficiently multiplied and defined to 
convey them beyond the simple fascination of the super- 
natural and wonderful. 

Another multitude approach the sounding shore; 
with expectant breathing they inhale the atmosphere of 
this new dispensation ; they become liberalized, but not 
convinced ; and they number above one million of the 
world's brightest and bravest intellects. These are 
women and men of thought and action ; in walks of lit- 
erature, music, and art ; they take part as universal edu- 
cators and inspirers in colleges and lesser institutions 
for the advancement of both sexes and all races. 

There is yet to be counted another host, about four 
hundred thousand in this country, who are convinced, 
but not improved b} 7 the influential revelation of mod- 
ern Spiritualism. These investigators have breathed 
the air of physical phenomena, but their social and 
moral faculties do not feed at the reservoir of princi- 
ples, in which our Heavenly Parents hide the nourish- 
ment of the best life for mind and for the wholesome 
growth of character. These Spiritualists, being per- 
fectly convinced of the facts, are energetic both as writ- 
<ers and public advocates. Their thoughts are eloquent, 
and their discourses bright as stars. With unclouded 
intellects, and lifted somewhat by the under-flood of 
common inspiration, they proclaim the truth. They 
effectively aid in establishing among men a knowledge 



AND THEIR V^TIMS. 97 

of the f acts, yet threaten to overthrow our temple of 
truth, erected in sincere and thoughtful minds, by dis- 
orderly conduct of their external lives. And yet, im- 
mortal laurels bloom on the heights of Spiritualism, and 
what was called " evil, and that continually," is trans- 
formed to stepping-stones for the approaching feet of 
the faithful. 

Another army is marching this way, numbering one 
million and six hundred thousand adult women and men. 
These shine with the light of regeneration; they are each 
individually improved, but not inspired ; they receive the 
exalted harmonies of the New Dispensation into their 
private lives ; by experience, reason, and cultivation they 
absorb and assimilate the essentials of our principles ; 
and thus, without immediate inspiration or angel-help, 
these sixteen hundred thousand in our ranks interpret 
and exemplify the enrichments and exaltations flowing 
from the fountain around which we this day meet to 
rejoice. 

A bright procession, numbering quite two millions, 
approach through the golden gates of Spiritualism, with 
freedom and knowledge emanating from them like 
effulgence from the sun, proclaiming that the world's 
second birth is at hand, prophesying of bloody strug- 
gles yet to come, when despots and bigots shall combine 
against Progress to their own destruction — this throng 
in Spiritualism are inspired but not organized — individ- 
ualism in its first fruition, a mighty movement sweeping 
across the Continent from sea to sea, terrible as a dark 
barbarian mob marching with ever-increasing power 



08 THE DIAKKA 

against the strongholds of ignorance, error, bigotry, and 
superstition. The glory and beauty of free-religion, 
and the victorious development of a higher civilization, 
waving and expanding like a golden harvest beneath the 
heavens of the Summerland, are promised by the ef- 
forts of this unorganized mob of inspired women and 
men, to the number of twenty hundred thousand ! 

Here is a summary of the vast hosts to which I have 
briefly called your attention : 

Of adult persons interested in Spiritualism, but not 

mentally liberalized by it 4,000,000 

Of adult persons liberalized, but not yet fully convinced 

of Spiritualism 1,000,000 

Of adult persons convinced, but not improved in life and 

character 400,000 

Of adult persons improved by Spiritualism, but not in- 
spired 1,600,000 

Of adult persons inspired by Spiritualism, but not regu- 
lated by it 2,000,000 

Grand total 9,000,000 

A somewhat different recapitulation of the modern 
achievements might illustrate and exhibit the situation 
and effects in a more intelligible. light ; thus : 

1. Spiritualism has converted four hundred thousand 
(400,000) from dark scepticism to a full knowledge of 
the soul's individual existence after death. 

2. Spiritualism has attracted the serious attention and 
interested four million (4,000,000) minds who were in- 
different to the vital interests of humanity. 

3. Spiritualism has rescued from the barren doctrines 
of orthodoxy and liberalized at least one million 
(1,000,000) of thoughtful, earnest men and women, and 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 99 

prepared them for the reception and comprehension of 
higher ideas of truth and justice. 

4. Spiritualism has awakened from dumb slumber, 
and manifestly developed into nobler characters, at least 
one million and six hundred thousand (1,600,000) souls, 
fortifying their interior faculties with rational concep- 
tions of our Heavenly Parents, bringing to light the har- 
monies of the universe, by and through the Harmonial 
Philosophy, which is at once a science, a theology, a re- 
ligion, and a revelation of nature, reason, and intuition. 

5. Spiritualism has lifted out of ignorance, poverty, 
and obscurity, and filled with an unorganized (because 
unorganizable) inspiration not less than two millions 
(2,000,000) of the earth's present inhabitants. It has 
confounded the wise out of the mouths of the world's 
unschooled babes and unwashed simpletons! 

These are some of the achievements of the new joy- 
inspiring dispensation, which has dawned upon the old 
dead world of theological fossils and bigots. 

We have said nothing of our active efforts in healing 
the sick, and in lifting up the down-trodden in every 
department of society. The chief manifestations of the 
mission and powers of Spiritualism are exhibited in 
X mental rather than in physical regeneration, although it 
x is popularly and erroneously believed that angel minis- 
trations are directed for the most part to the augmen- 
tation of the worldly comforts of true believers. 

Notwithstanding the truthful array of figures here 

presented, the fact remains that human communication 

^with the inhabitants of celestial lands is exceedingly 



100 THE DIAKKxl 

rare, mixed, and frequently unreliable. Not more than 
one hundred and fifty test mediums devote their time 
exclusively to the demands of the public. In private 
home retreats, whither the cautious and cowardly gather 
for investigation and the gratification of insatiable curi- 
osity, we can number at least three thousand (3,000) on 
both sides of the Atlantic, whose names have not yet 
been catalogued among professional and publicly acces- 
sible mediums. The proportion is only one medium 
conscious of an experience in Spiritualism to hundreds of 
thousands of adult persons as yet both unconscious and 
unmindful of what we this day assemble to celebrate. 

Of speakers and ministers of Spiritualism, including 
editors and publicly avowed advocates, continually in 
the field, either settled or travelling, the number is ex- 
ceedingly limited, compared with the ministerial force 
of any prominent denomination of Christians. So far 
in our history the public demand for abnormal speakers 
is greatly in excess of the supply. Inspirational dis- 
courses, especially if developed successfully by. questions 
sent to the rostrum by the audience — thus conveying at 
once a test and instruction, both through prose and 
spontaneous verse — possess undiminished charms for 
those who take deep interest in the claims and ideas of 
Spiritualism. This popular want has been and is being 
met by about forty men and sixty women, whose ranks 
are continually recruited from circles, in which speak- 
ers receive their first lessons under psychological con- 
trol, and out of which they graduate to the conference- 
room and public rostrum. This widespread demand of 



AND THEIR VICTIMS. 101 

the popular appetite for spontaneous prose and inspired. 
* verse, has shut like an iron door against the approaching 
^ministry of cultivated normal teachers, who write under 
the inspiration of great principles, and deliver their 
^productions from manuscript. These, consequently, 
"-believing in subjective mental industry and involuntary 
s spirit culture, retire into other fields of usefulness, in 
politics, religion, social reforms, etc., surrendering the 
spiritualistic platform almost wholly to trance, psycho- 
logical, and inspirational advocates. By this means 
converts are multiplied, while the standard of individual 
x-and self -responsible spiritual culture is being steadily 
/flowered to a level with popular Methodism. The socie- 
ties and corporations of Universalists, Unitarians, and 
free religionists reap large crops out of our harvest 
fields from this cause alone. Spiritualism fails to 
utilize normal talents freely offered from the ranks of 
scholastic and self-educated women and men. They are 
compelled to find employment and adequate remunera- 
tion in liberal, but less congenial associations. Spirit- 
ualism will accomplish nothing more than an ordinary 
victory over superstition until its enlightened friends 
>' raise the standard of social, moral, and intellectual cult- 
ure. Then, and not till then, will our immortal prin- 
ciples interest leading minds, and lift mankind toward 
unity and happiness. 

Four and twenty years find us with only the sem- 
blance of organizational existence. The form does not 
X exist because there is among us no formative soul. We 
are like grains of sparkling sand, which will not unite ; 



102 THE DIAKKA AND THEIR VICTIMS. 

not like drops of water, which inevitably flow into co- 
operative fellowship. In this feature our movement is 
as original as are the most of our cardinal propositions. 
Moreover, Spiritualism has not (excepting the Chil- 
dren's Lyceum) made its name one with any important 
public enterprise or great effective labor of beneficence. 

X It is also exceedingly poor in real estate, owning no 
grand structures adapted to any purpose, and contenting 

v itself with meeting in crude halls and out-of-the-way 
rooms, unworthy of ideas and believers so magnanimous. 
And yet, in view of the vast and grand develop- 
ments in the philosophical and spiritual domain of this 
twenty-four year old movement, we hail and invite the 
coming multitudes of earth ; we offer them drink at our 
flowing fountains, and we set before them a feast of 
wholesome things ; we give them joy that the Star of 
Truth, heralded by the choral angels, has so brilliantly 

/ arisen above the horizon of our new modern Bethlehem ! 
The sacred fires of universal liberty, justice, and love 
burn upon the altars of our Western civilization. An 
intense fervid spiritual emotion stirs the great heart of 
the nineteenth century. A boundlessly free religion, 
based upon a universal recognition of human equal 
rights, and promoted by a perpetual expansion of equal 
principles through human souls, is this day the demand 
of the entire world. And we behold in the manif esta- 

■ tions and unorganizable inspirations of modern Spirit- 
ualism the preparation for the establishment of a nobler 
and happier life on earth, for which all living sinners 
and saints unceasingly pray. 



THE PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING HOUSE. 



A. J. DAVIS & CO.'S 



CATALOGUE 



STANDARD BOOKS 



HARMONIAL PHILOSOPHY, SPIRITUALISM, FREE RELIGION, 
SCIENCE AND GENERAL REFORM, 



AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN AUTHORS, 



WHOLESALE AND BET AIL. 



No. 24 EAST FOURTH STREET, NEW YORK, 

BETWEEN BROADWAY AND THE BOWERY. 
P. O. Box 82, Station D. 

1873. 



Location of our Harmonial Depot. 

East Fourth Street, on the south side of which, No. 24, you 
will find the u Progressive Publishing House," runs east and 
west, at right angles with Broadway on the west and the Bowery 
on the east, and is but a short walk from either thoroughfare. 
Three lines of cars pass up and down the Bowery (a car every 
thirty seconds) only two minutes' walk from our establishment ; 
and two of these lines (the Fourth Avenue and a special branch 
of the Third Avenue line) start from the Grand Central Depot, 
and terminate at the Astor House, thus making our house easily 
accessible to all who seek us by means of either railroad route, 
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To our Correspondents. 

U3P 3 In making remittances to us for books, &c, please pro- 
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and losses by mail. All postmasters are obliged, for a fee of 
fifi 3en cents, to register a letter when requested to do so. 



A. J. DAVIS & CO.'S CATALOGUE. 



A. J. J} AVIS & CO.'S 

CATALOGUE Of PROGRESSIVE PURLICATMS, 



ON 



NATURE, SCIENCE, FREE RELIGION, SOCIAL REFORM, AND 
SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



LIST OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OE 

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

Published in uniform style and for Sale, Wholesale and Retail, by the 

Progressive Publishing House, 

No. 24 East Fourth St., New York (Near the Bowery). 



Principles of Nature : Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to 
Mankind. — (In Three Parts.) Thirty-Second Edition, just 
published, with a likeness of the author, and containing a 
family record for marriages, births and deaths. This is the 
first and most comprehensive volume of Mr. Davis, compris- 
ing the basis and ample outline of the Harmonial Philosophy*. 
It is a work of unprecedented character, the author being 
exalted to a position which gave him access to a knowledge 
of the structure and laws of the whole material and spiritual 
universe. It treats upon subjects of the profoundest in- 
terest and most unspeakable importance to the human race. 
Its claims are confessedly of the most startling character, 
and its professed disclosures, with the phenomena attending 
them, are in some respects unparalleled in the history of psy- 
chology $8.50 

Great Harmonia: Being a Philosophical Revelation of the 
Natural, Spiritual and Celestial Universe. — In five vol- 
umes, in which the principles of the Harmonial Philosophy 
are more fully elaborated and illustrated. 



A. J. DAVIS & CO.'S CATALOGUE. 



Vol. I. THE PHYSICIAN. In this volume is considered 
the Origin and Nature of Man ; the Philosophy of Health ; 
the Philosophy of Disease; the Philosophy of Sleep; the 
Philosophy of Death ; the Philosophy of Psychology ; and 
the Philosophy of Healing $1. ( 50 

Vol. II. THE TEACHER. In this'volume is presented 
the new and wonderful principles of "Spirit and its Cul- 
ture ; " also, a comprehensive and systematic argument on 
the " Existence of God." Its chapters are entitled: My 
Early Experience ; My Preacher and his Churcn ; the True 
Reformer; Philosophy of Charity ; Individual and Social Cul- 
ture ; the Mission of Woman ; the True Marriage ; Moral 
Freedom ; Philosophy of Immortality ; the Spirit's Destiny ; 
Concerning the Deity 1.50 

Vol. III. THE SEER. This volume is composed of 
twenty-seven Lectures on every phase of Magnetism and 
Clairvoyance in the past and present of human history. The 
whole ground of Psychology, Clairvoyance and Inspiration is 
traversed and examined in detail, and the conclusions ob- 
tained are believed to be entirely consistent with the prin- 
ciples of Nature, and with the author's personal experience.. 1.50 

Vol. IV. THE REFORMER. This volume, devoted to 
the consideration of ' i Physiological Vices and Virtues, and 
the Seven Phases of Marriage," treats upon the uses of the 
conjugal principle, which tend directly either to demolish or 
to upbuild man's moral and physical nature ; right views of 
marriage and parentage; woman's rights and wrongs ; laws of 
attraction and marriage ; transient and permanent marriage ; 
temperaments ; the rights and wrongs of divorce, etc. , the 
entire work acting powerfully in the direction of mankind's 
regeneration and happiness 1.50 

Vol. V. THE THINKER. The most comprehensive vol- 
ume of the series. Part First is a description of the Truth- 
ful Thinker, and an analysis of the nature and powers of 
mind. Part Second — the Pantheon of Progress, comprising 
psychometrical delineations of Egyptian, Chaldean, Persian, 
Greek, Pagan, Jew, Christian, Roman and Protestant charac- 
ters, most prominent and useful in history, with the central 
ideas taught by each, illustrating the philosophy of universal 
progress. Part Third — the Origin of Life and the Law of 
Immortality. No book extant contains any such argument 









A. J. 

as that running through the chapters on " Immor- 
tality," or any such metaphysics as distinguish the c ' Pan- 
theon of Progress " $1.50 

Magic Staff. An Autobiography of Andrew Jackson Davis. — 
A well-authenticated history of the domestic, social, physical 
and literary career of the author, with his remarkable expe- 
riences as a Clairvoyant and Seer. A book of great interest 
to old and young, containing one of the most singular and 
touching child-histories ever recorded. It is unlike any of 
the author's other works, and peculiarly adapted to interest, 
and at the same time instruct, those unacquainted with his 
peculiar philosophy. In this volume (including the autobio- 
graphical parts of " Arabula," and u Memoranda," which en- 
ter largely into the author's personal experiences) the public 
will find a final answer to all slanders and misrepresenta- 
tions. Thousands of copies of the u Magic Staff " have been 
sold in the United States, and the demand, instead of being 
supplied, is increasing. This work is very attractive to 
children and young minds, and three or four copies should be 
in the library of every im Children's Progressive Lyceum.". . , .1.75 

A Stellar Key to the Summer-Land — Illustrated with Diagrams 
and Engravings of Celestial Scenery. The teachings of this 
grand book are entirely original, and direct the mind and 
thoughts into channels hitherto wholly unexplored. De- 
signed to furnish scientific and philosophical evidences of the 
existence of an inhabitable sphere or zone among the suns 
and planets of space ; adapted to all who seek a solid, rational, 
philosophical foundation on which to rest their hopes of a 
substantial existence after death. The descriptions of physi- 
cal scenery and the constitution of the Summer-Land, its lo- 
cation, and domestic life in the spheres, are new and won- 
derfully interesting. Revised edition, uniform with the com- 
panion volume " Death and the After Life," cloth binding. . 75 
Paper covers 50 

Arabula ; or, The Divine Guest. — Preeminently a religious and 
spiritual volume. l i I am Arabula ; I am the light of the 
world; he that folio weth me shall have light and lif e ; he 
that lovethme, keepeth my commandments." To some ex- 
tent a continuation of the author's autobiography, but chiefly 
a record of deeply interesting religious experiences, involv- 
ing alternations of faith and skepticism, lights and shades, 



6 

heaven and hades, joys and sorrows, considered as to their 
causes. Also containing a new collection of Living Gospels 
from Ancient and Modern Saints $1.50 

Approaching Crisis; or, Truth vs. Theology. — This is a close 
and searching criticism of Dr. Bushnell's Sermons on the 
Bible, Nature, Religion, Skepticism, and the Supernatural. 
The errors and absurd teachings of Orthodox clergymen are 
overthrown by arguments that are pronounced perfectly un- 
answerable. It is affirmed by many of the most careful 
readers of Mr. Davis's works, that the best explanation of 
the u Origin of Evil" is to be found in the Review. New 
edition from new stereotype plates 1.00 

Answers to Ever-Recurring Questions from the People. — (A 

Sequel to u Penetralia.") This popular volume is alive, all 
through, with new ideas and inspirations. These answers 
comprise a wide range of subjects, embracing points of pecu- 
liar interest and the highest value, connected with the Spirit- 
ual Philosophy and Practical Reform. All persons capable 
of putting a question should read this book, as it will largely 
serve to awaken inquiry and develop thought on the part of 
the general reader 1.50 

Children's Progressive Lyceum. — A Manual, with Directions for 
the Organization and Management of Sunday-Schools, 
adapted to the Bodies and Minds of the Young, and con- 
taining Rules, Methods, Exercises, Marches, Lessons, Ques- 
tions and Answers, Invocations, Silver-Chain Recitations, 
Hymns and Songs. Lyceum organizers will find it most 
economical to purchase the Manual in large quantities. 
Every Lyceum should be well supplied with these little books, 
so that all, both visitors and members, can unite in singing 
the songs of the Spirit, and all join as one family in the 
beautiful Silver-Chain Recitations. The abridged edition 
is no longer in print, experience having proved the far 
greater value to Lyceums of the original complete Manual. 
To the end that Children's Progressive Lyceums may multiply 
all over the land, we offer the latest editions at the following 
reduced prices : Seventh unabridged edition, single copy. . 60 

Twelve copies 6.50 

Fifty copies 22.00 

One hundred copies 40.00 



A. J. DAVIS & CO.'s CATALOGUE. 



Death and the After-Life. — Thousands upon thousands of this 
wonderful little volume have been sold and read. The 
u Stellar Key " is the philosophical introduction to the reve- 
lations contained in this book. We believe Mr. Davis re- 
gards this work as Part II. of the " Stellar Key." But 
most persons read the second part first ; then, if any doubts 
remain in the intellect, the ' ' Key " (Part I. ) is the most satis- 
factory book to read and study. The fact that we are so 
often compelled to get out new editions of u Death and 
the After-Life," proves that the thinking public outside, as 
well as Spiritualists, are deeply impressed with its teachings. 
Some idea of this little volume may be gained from the fol- 
lowing table of contents : 1 — Death and the After-Life ; 
2 — Scenes in the Summer-Land ; 3 — Society in the Summer- 
Land ; 4 — Social Centres in the Summer-Land ; 5 — Winter- 
Land and Summer-Land; 6 — Language and Life in Sum- 
mer-Land ; 7 — Material Work for Spiritual Workers ; 8 — Ul- 
timates in the Summer-Land ; 9 — Voice from James Victor 
Wilson. This enlarged edition contains more than double 
the amount of matter in former editions, and is enriched by 
a beautiful frontispiece, illustrating the ''formation of the 

Spiritual Body." Paper covers $ 50 

In cloth binding 75 

History and Philosophy of Evil. — With Suggestions for More 
Ennobling Institutions, and Philosophical Systems of Educa- 
tion. The whole question of Evil — individual, social, na- 
tional and general — is fully analyzed and answered. This 
volume has been recently re-stereotyped, new matter intro- 
duced, and is now uniform with the Harmonia. Paper 

covers 50 

Cloth' firmly bound 75 

Harbinger of Health. — Containing Medical Prescriptions for the 
Human Body and Mind. It is a plain, simple guide to 
health, with no quackery, no humbug, no universal panacea. 
It imparts knowledge whereby any individual may be greatly 
assisted in resisting and overcoming the assaults of diseass, 
and enjoying uninterrupted good health. More than three 
hundred prescriptions, for the cure of over one hundred 
forms of disease, are given. As a book of family reference, 
it is adapted to universal use. The first volume of the 
"Harmonia," " The Physician," this work, " The Harbin- 



A. J. DAVIS & CO. S CATALOGUE. 



ger of Health," and the author's last work, entitled "Mental 
Disorders, or Diseases of the Brain and Nerves " — these three 
books alone would make a reliable medical library for a fam- 
ily, or for a student of Philosophy and the Science of Life 
and Health. Eighteenth edition $1.50 

Harmonial Manj or, Thoughts for the Age.— Designed to enlarge 
man's views concerning the political and ecclesiastical condi- 
tion of America, and to point out the paths of reform. Also 
considers scientific themes which concern man's social and 
personal happiness, comprising the meteoric laws, and the 
philosophy of controlling rain. Revised and re -stereotyped, 
so that this popular work is uniform with the other volumes. 
Paper , 50 

Cloth 75 

Events in the Life of a Seer. — Being Memoranda of Authentic 
Facts in Magnetism, Clairvoyance, and Spiritualism. In this 
sequel to the " Magic Staff" will be found a remarkable 
chain of visions, impressions, and discoveries in Human Mag- 
netism, Clairvoyance, and Spiritual Intercourse ; also, Quota- 
tions from the outrageous misrepresentations published against 
the author by persons calling themselves ' ' Christians. " With 
an Appendix, containing Zschokke's Great Story, "Horten- 
sia," vividly portraying the difference between the Ordinary 
State and that of Clairvoyance. Headers will find a great 
variety of those fresh and fleeting " impressions " of the in- 
spired seer, carefully set down by his own hand for a period 
of over twenty-two years, that will let them further than 
ever into his own nature and the mysterious realms which his 
vision is permitted to penetrate and search , 1.50 

Philosophy of Special Providences. — The author's " vision" of the 
harmonious works of the Creator is fully given in this bright 
little book. He illustrates by a series of clairvoyant visions, 
and lastly by an "Argument," the whole chain of special 
f providences which mankind attribute to the direct acts of the 
\Deity. Thousands of copies of this delightful and convincing 
work have been sold, and the demand is on the increase. 

Cloth 50 

Paper 30 

Free Thoughts Concerning Religion.— Containing the most radi- 
cal thoughts, critical and explanatory, concerning popular 



A. J. DAVIS & CO.'S CATALOGUE. 9 

religions ideas, their origin, imperfections, and the changes 
that mnst come. This sterling work has just been re-stereo- 
typed and enlarged by the addition of many most telling 
facts and arguments against the absurdities of the popular 
church doctrines. We have published and sold several edi- 
tions of this admired work. Neatly bound in cloth $ 75 

Paper covers , 50 

Penetralia, Containing Harmonial Answers. — New and superior 
edition from entirely new plates, printed and published in 
style of the Harmonia. This work, which at the time was 
styled by the author ' ' the wisest book " from his pen, has 
been long prominently before the American public. While 
the topics are mainly theological and spiritual, many ques- 
tions of practical interest and value are answered, thus ren- 
dering the volume an acquisition to the student and philoso- 
pher, as well as the theologian. Some of the chapters are 
overflowing with rare and glorious revelations of the realities 
of the world beyond the grave 1.75 

Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse.— Here are the contents : 
The G-uardianship of Spirits ; the Discernment of Spirits ; 
the Stratford Mysteries ; the Doctrine of Evil Spirits ; the 
Origin of Spirit Sounds ; Concerning Sympathetic Spirits ; 
the Formation of Circles ; the Resurrection of the Dead ; A 
Voice from the Spirit- Land ; the True Religion. This work 
has been translated into the French and German, and is de- 
servedly very popular. It contains an account of the very 
wonderful Spiritual Developments at the house of Rev. Dr. 
Phelps, Stratford, Conn. , and similar cases in all parts of the 
country. This volume is the first from the author directly 
on the subject of u Spiritualism," and its positions and prin- 
ciples and good counsels have stood the test of twenty years 
of the most varied and searching experiences by thousands of 
mediums and investigators. It is now offered in a new and 
beautiful form, with only a slight advance upon the price of 
the old editions. (N. B. — This work was for years published 
in octavo and pamphlet form ; but since revision and enlarge- 
ment, cloth binding is the only style that would be appropri- 
ate. In cloth 1. 25 

The Inner Life ; or, Spirit Mysteries Explained.— This is a Se- 
quel to "Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse," recently revised 
and enlarged. It presents a compend of the Harmonial Phi- 



10 A. J. DAVIS & CO.'S CATALOGUE. 

losophy of " Spiritualism," with illustrative facts of spiritual 
intercourse, both ancient and modern, and a thorough and 
original treatise upon the laws and conditions of mediumshi'p. 
It comprises a Survey of Human Needs ; Definition of Phi- 
losophy and Spiritualism ; the Spiritual Congress ; Visions at 
High Rock Cottage ; the Delegations and Exordia ; Table of 
Explanation; Classification of Media; Classification of Cau- 
ses; Revelations from Pandemonium; Assertion vs. Fact ; 
Voice to the Insane ; Benefits of Experience ; Phenomena of 
the Spiritual Spheres. Printed and published in first-rate 
style, with illustrations and diagrams. Cloth binding $1.50 

The Temple : On Diseases of the Brain and Nerves. — Developing 
the Origin and Philosophy of Mania, Insanity and Crime ; 
with full Directions and Prescriptions for their Treatment and 
Cure. This large, handsome volume treats the question of 
Insanity and Crime from a Spiritual and Psychological stand- 
point. Herein we find a comprehensive and thorough expo- 
sition of the various diseases of the brain and nerves, in 
which he develops the origin and philosophy of mania, insan- 
ity and crime, and presents the reader with full directions 
for their treatment and cure. No subject on the roll of 
modern treatment appeals with more vivid force to the gen- 
eral attention, as there certainly is none from which the 
public might expect more satisfactory treatment from a clair- 
voyant like Mr. Davis. A " Glossary," giving the definition 
and pronunciation of difficult words, is printed at the end of 
the volume. The book contains 460 pages, is beautifully 
printed and bound, uniform with the " Harmonia," a Har- 
binger of Health," etc., with an Original Frontispiece illus- 
trative of " Mother Nature Casting (D) evils Out of her Chil- 
dren." Cloth 1.50 

Paper (Frontispiece omitted) 1.00 

The Fountain : With Jets of New Meanings. — Illustrated with 
142 Engravings. Beautiful paper, fine press -work, superior 
binding. The contents of two chapters (viz. : XIII. and XIV.) 
in this original book brought down upon Mr. Davis the alarm- 
ing charge of "Recantation." But while the criticisms on 
the errors and extremes of many in the ranks of Spiritualism 
are conceded to be just and timely, the charge that the 
author had " gone back " on the spiritual facts and principles 
is seen to be without foundation. In fact, this attractive 



A. J. DAVIS & CO/S CATALOGUE. 11 

little volume is teeming with thoughts for men and pictures 
for children. The young, as well as the old, can read it, and 
study its lessons and illustrations with ever- increasing pleas- 
ure and profit. It covers a wide range of topics, including 
much needed lessons tipon the Mission and Treatment of 
Dumb Animals ; the Essential Conditions of Human Progress ; ; 
of Advancing Civilization ; the Claims and Rights of Labor, of 
Women, of Indians, of Children, and of the Unfortunate and 
Vicious. Cloth binding, in good style - $1.00 

Tale of a Physician j or, The Seeds and Fruits of Crime. A 
True Story of the Life and Trials of Madam Sophia Ara- 
goni. — (In three Parts — complete in one volume.) Part I. — 
Planting the Seeds of Crime ; Part II. — -Trees of Crime in 
Full Bloom ; Part III. — Reaping the Fruits of Crime. A 
% wonderfully interesting book. Society is unveiled. Individ- 
ual miseries, and the great crimes caused by circumstances, 
are brought to light. Mr. Davis has, after twenty years, ful- 
filled his promise. (See his sketch of a night visit to a Cave 
on Long Island, detailed in u The Inner Life.") In this vol- 
ume the reader is introduced to distinguished men and noted 
women in New Orleans, Cuba, Paris, and New York. The 
startling trials and tragical events of their lives are truth- 
fully recorded. This book is as attractive as the most thril- 
ling romance, and yet it explains the producing causes of 
theft, murder, suicide, foeticide, infanticide, and the other 
nameless evils which afflict society and alarm all the friends 

of humanity.* Cloth 1 .00 

Paper edition 75 

The Sacred Gospels of Arabula. — This book is a compilation from 
the devout utterances and moral precepts of the world's wri- 
ters, arranged in the form of chapters and verses in the man- 
ner of King James's translation of the Bible. In the intro- 
duction the author says: " As the sunlight of high heaven 
pours itself through the forests and flowers of nature, so 
burns the flames and sacred fire of truth through the affec- 
tions and faculties of every earnest, grateful mind, irrespec- 
tive alike of centuries, countries, titles, or circumstances. " 
Therefore, ' ' Saints of the past and present, whom the churches 
reject as sinners and refuse to canonize, are herein summoned 
to present new gospels in the interest of human progress." 
Consequently you will find in this choice selection, u The 



12 A. J. DAVIS & CO.'s CATALOGUE. 

Gospel according to the Zend-Avesta ; " " The Gospel accord- 
ing to St. Confucius ; " " Proverbs of Syrus, the Syrian," and 
others among the ancients ; and among modems, " The Gos- 
pel according to St. John [G. Whittier] " ; " The Gospel ac- 
cording to St. Ralph [Waldo Emerson]" ; " The Gospel ac- 
cording to St. Eliza [W. Famham]"; "The Gospel accord- 
ing to St. Lotta [B. Wilbour]" ; " The Gospel according to 
St. Octavius [B. Frothingham]" ; " The Gospel according to 
St. Aseph [B. Child]" ; " The Gospel according to St. Mary [F. 
Davis]", and others. Whoever reads these glowing pages will 
find the soul uplifted, and refreshed by the " beauty of holi- 
ness. " And the reader cannot but feel that the Divine is a 
sacred and living presence in the hearts that wait and listen, 
no less now than when the prophet heard " the still small 
voice," and the son of Mary gave in rapt discourse u The Ser- 
mon on the Mount." The book is issued in fine style, and the f 
symbol of a scroll on the cover, containing the inscription in 
handsome type, and gracefully poised in space by a delicate 
hand, is suggestive of golden benefactions from the higher 
life. Price, cloth, 60 cents ; in full gilt, $1. 

Complete Works of A. J. Davis, all neatly and firmly bound in 
cloth, and in uniform style, comprising twenty-six volumes, $36. 

Sent C. O. D. to any part of the world, by either mail or express, aa 
the purchaser may desire. 



To our Correspondents. — In making remittances to us for 
books, &c. , please procure a draft on New York, or, which 
is quite as well, obtain a Post- Office Money Ordtr; but 
when neither of these can be procured, then enclose your 
money in your letter and have it Registered. This plan will 
protect your money from all risks and losses by mail. All 
Postmasters are obliged, for a fee of fifteen cents, to register 
a letter when requested to do so. 



THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



"DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE." 

%5W~ With an illustration representing the formation of the spiritual body. 

The following synopsis of contents will convince the reader that this little book is at 
once original, spiritual, entertaining, and instructive. 

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS : 

Lecture 1. — "Death and, the JLfter-Life." — In this lecture the author 
ghows that the Bibl6 is a reliable history of spiritual manifestations ; Paul's doctrine of 
the " spiritual body " is confirmed; vivid desciiption of death-scene, illustrated by the 
frontispiece ; deaths by accident described ; the effects of a cannon-ball on the spirit- 
body ; how this life is continued in the character of the individual after death. 

Lec. 2. — "Scenes in the Summer -Land." — Author's account of his method 
in the use of clairvoyance ; he shows the difference between the constitution of this 
world and that of the Summer-Land ; the laws of growth after death ; difference be- 
tween " spirit- world " and the grand zone in space ; descriptions of islands, rivers, valleys, 
and populations in the higher sphere. 

Lec. 3. — '/ Society in the Summer -Land." — The Christians are called upon 
to be consistent ; Bible believers cannot reject modern manifestations from the other life ; 
the argument plainly set forth ; about language in the "many mansions " of the heavenly 
home ; author's vision of Children's Progressive Lyceums in the better world ; wonderful 
accounts of different tribes and nations and religions among the spirits. 

Lec. 4. — "Social Centres in the Summer Land." — An argument with 
Mr. Nicodemus and his like ; how a social centre becomes magnetic ; what death does, 
and what it does not do for the individual ; strainings and siftings and regenerations 
necessary and certain in the other world ; no man can serve two masters ; spirit, not the 
body, should govern every person. 

Lec. 5. — " Winter-Land and Summer -Land." — The crude earth and the 
great world beyond contrasted ; the immensity of the Summer-Land among the suns and 
stars of space ; celestial rivers, as seen by the clairvoyant's eyes ; letter from a little girl 
to her mate in heaven ; vision of the most ancient Egyptians now living in the higher 
world ; an explanation of the Pentecost mentioned in the New Testament. 

Lec. 6. — " Language in the Summer-Land." — The laws of oral language ; 
why mediums speak with new tongues ; the roots of this life reappearing in the next 
world; flight of heavy bodies through the atmosphere; the strength of mental habits 
not much weakened by death ; "the language of the heart" in the Summer-Land ; com- 
munications from Henry Clay, Dr. Emmons, J. Fenimore Cooper, Margaret Fuller, and 
remarkable instances of special providences, closing with a prophecy by the Hon. J. W. 
Edmonds, foreshadowing the great rebellion. 

Lec. 7. — "Material Work for Spiritual Workers." — The glorious op- 
portunities for work in this life ; the great works already accomplished ; the laws of 
labors, and the motives which ought to control men ; how Mother Nature works for her 
children ; the true law by which you can secure your own personal development ; how 
IDEAS move the world and cause all true progression. 

Lec. 8. — " Ultimates in the Summer-Land." — The author's philosophy of 
the origin of things; a plain lesson about primates and proximates; concerning the 
cooperative benefits of Science and Art ; something new about the white and black races ; 
what Nature proposes to do with the different tribes and races of men ; an original view 
of the future population of the earth. 

Lec. 9. — "A. Voice from James Victor Wilson." — The chief attraction of 
this interview with a resident of another world consists in the wonderful disclosures of a 
system of hospital treatment to which persons afflicted with a "Toleka" are subjected; 
there is deep pathos and true wisdom in every line of the impartation, and no person can 
fail to realize the very naturalness of the world which exists for all, just beyond the 
valley of the shadow of death. 



This little volume is printed on fine white paper, bound ciegantly in cloth, for only 75 
cts. a copy, postage 12 cts. Liberal discount when a large number of copies are ordered. 



14 

Ministry of Angels. — A Letter to the Edwards Congregational 
Church, Boston. By A. E. Newton. This able letter, so 
bold and free, yet so calm, rational and fraternal, has never 
been excelled in adaptation to win the attention, command 
the respect and enlighten the minds of church members 
concerning the real nature and tendencies of Spiritualism. 
Pamphlet cover $0.25 

What is Spiritualism ? — An Address delivered by Thomas Gales 
Forster, in Music Hall, Boston, Mass., Sunday afternoon, 
Oct. 27th, 1867. This address is terse and to the point. 
Societies should circulate this pamphlet in their respective 
localities with a lavish hand, and so promote the cause of 
Spiritualism. Paper cover 25 

Life-Line of the Lone One. — New edition. Those who sym- 
pathize with the many great purposes will read this auto- 
biography of Warren Chase, who, struggling against the ad- 
verse circumstances of a u dishonorable birth, and the 
lowest condition of poverty and New England slavery," 
conquered ignorance, obscurity, poverty and organic inhar- 
mony, and rose to the position of legislator, public lecturer, 
spiritual teacher and trenchant writer. Cloth binding 1.00 

American Crisis 5 or, The Trial and Triumph of Democracy. — 

The pen of a statesman wrote this timely pamphlet. "We 
will defend the government that secures to all its children 
land, labor and education." Paper '. 25 

Joan D'Arc. A Eiography. — Translated from the French by 
Sarah M. Grimke. With Portrait. A charming volume, 
narrating the wonderful career of the inspired Maid of 
Orleans, whose memory, for years assailed by detraction, 
now grows brighter as time develops her character and her 
virtues 1. 00 

Miracles, Past and Present. — By W 7 illiam Mountford. This re- 
markable work is a highly important contribution to the 
discussion of questions which the development of Spiritual- 
ism has rendered deeply interesting to all thoughtful minds. 
The author is well known as an acute and vigorous thinker, 
and a writer of unquestioned ability. Matter and Spirit; 
the Outburst of Spiritualism ; Thoughts on Spiritualism ; A 
Miracle Defined ; Miracles as Signs ; Miracles and the Crea- 



A, J. DAVIS & CO.'s CATALOGUE. 15 

tive Spirit ; Miracles and Human Nature ; Miracles and . 
Pneumatology ; the Spirit and the Old Testament ; the Old 
Testament and the New ; the Spirit ; Jesus and the Spirit ; 
Jesus and the Resurrection; the Church and the Spirit. 
Large, fine volume, bound in cloth $2.00 

Night Side of Nature ; or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers.— By Cath- 
arine Orowe. This book treats of allegorical dreams, pre- 
sentiments, trances, apparitions, troubled spirits, haunted 
houses, etc. It embraces a vast collection of marvellous 
stories of supernatural occurrences out of the ordinary course 
of events. It is not a catchpenny affair, but is an intelligent 
inquiry into the asserted facts respecting ghosts and appari- 
tions, and a psychological discussion upon the reasonableness 
of a belief in their existence. New edition, substantially 
bound in cloth r 1-25 

Looking Beyond. — By J. O. Barrett. Life, Soul, Spirit, Celestial 
Body. A most beautiful book, written in the author's usual 
finished style, aflash with spiritual illuminations and affec- 
tions. It contains the testimony of the departed respecting 
what they see and hear of the " better land ; " the philoso- 
phy of life, the moral ratio of worlds, the brighter views of 
the transition called death, the true uses of funerals on a 
more attractive scale, and visions of the " Beyond." It is a 
casket of sweet immortelles, and a Bethlehem star in every 
bereft home. In cloth 75 

Philosophy of Creation. — Unfolding the Laws of the Progressive 
Development of Nature, and Embracing the Philosophy of 
Man, Spirit and the Spirit-World. By Thomas Paine, 

through the hand of George S. Wood, medium. Cloth 60 

Paper 35 

An Hour with the Angels ; or, a Dream of the Spirit-Life. — By 

A. Brigham. This charming brochure, as its title indicates, 
narrates a vision of scenes in the spirit-land, witnessed by 
the author in a dream. "Four thousand years of angel 
ministries, of visions and dreams, and the occasional appear- 
ance of the spirits of departed men, as recorded in the 
Bible, ought to be sufficient to establish the principle that 
spirit communion is possible." Printed on fine tinted paper. 

Cloth 50 

Paper 25 



*6 A - J- DAVIS & CO.'s CATALOGUE. 



Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant, the World's Medium of the 
19th Century.— This book contains a history of the Medium- 
ship of Mrs. Conant from childhood to the present time : 
together with extracts from the diary, of her physician • 
selections from letters received verifying spirit communica- 
tions given through her organism at the Banner of Light 
Free Circles; and. spirit messages, essays and invocations 
from various intelligences in the other life. The whole 
being prefaced with opening remarks from the pen of Allen 
Putnam, Esq., who says, in his " Prefatory Remarks," 
" Objection was made to styling Mrs. Conant the 'World's 
Medium ' on the title page. The reply was that for many 
years the doors of her circle-room have, tri-weekly, been 
thrown freely open to the world— to all comers whatsoever, 
and that it is in this sense only— viz., her accessibility by 
the world, and the extent to which the world has approached 
her, that she is here called the World's Medium. " Read it, 
doubters of immortality, and refute its proofs if you can ! 
Peruse it, hearts who grow weary of the battle of life, what- 
ever be your creed, and be comforted ! Examine it, Spirit- 
ualists, and find therein proof -texts, incidents and arguments 
which cannot fail of bringing to you even a stronger convic- 
tion of the verity of your philosophy ! A fine Steel Plate 
Portrait of the Medium adorns the work. Cloth $1 50 

M ^ W. WW. £00 

Flashes of Light from the Spirit-Land.— Through the Medium- 
ship of Mrs. J. H. Conant. Compiled and Arranged by Allen 
Putnam, author of "Spirit Works;" " Natty, a Spirit ;' » 
" Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft and Miracle," etc., 
etc. This comprehensive volume of more than four hundred 
pages will present to the reader a wide range of useful infor- 
mation, scientific disquisition, theologic explication, geo- 
graphic description and spiritual revelation. The book is 
composed of extracts from answers to some of the most im- 
portant questions proposed at the Banner of Light Free 
Circles, and will meet the desire of multitudes of Spirit- 
ualists all over the country, who have repeatedly requested 
that the information in question should be embodied in book 
form. As an encyclopedia of Spiritual information it is 
without a superior. Cloth 1 # 5Q 

William Kowitt's History of the Supernatural (Which means 



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